FY 2022 NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP) | O BJS 2022 171209

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJS 2022 171209

The FY 2022 NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP) is a discretionary, cooperative agreement grant opportunity run by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) under CFDA 16.813. Its core purpose is to help jurisdictions improve the quality, completeness, and timely submission of records that support the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The program sits within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) public-safety framework, emphasizing civil rights and racial equity, increased access to justice, support for victims and justice-involved individuals, stronger community safety, and improved trust between law enforcement and the community.

NARIP is rooted in the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA), which was designed to close long-standing information gaps in the background check process. In particular, the NIAA focuses on ensuring that NICS has access to accurate records about people who are prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under federal or state law. This includes, prominently, records tied to prohibiting mental health adjudications and commitments, along with other disqualifying factors. By addressing these gaps, the program aims to make NICS function as intended: preventing firearm transfers to prohibited persons while also reducing unnecessary delays for law-abiding purchasers by improving how quickly and reliably records can be searched and verified.

For FY 2022, BJS highlights two main funding priorities. First, applicants are encouraged to use funds to enhance the completeness, automation, and electronic transmittal of records to the state and federal systems that feed into NICS. In practical terms, this often means modernizing record systems, converting paper-based or fragmented records into searchable digital formats, improving data standards and quality controls, and strengthening the pipelines that send updated records from courts, mental health adjudication entities, and other record custodians into the relevant repositories used during background checks. The second priority is to improve the overall reporting to NICS of individuals prohibited from possessing firearms for reasons related specifically to domestic violence and mental health. That focus reflects a push to ensure that prohibiting records in these categories are captured consistently, entered promptly, and transmitted in a way that makes them usable during background checks.

The NIAA also ties grant eligibility and ongoing participation to compliance-related expectations. The notice emphasizes that the Act not only authorizes grants to help states provide needed information to NICS, but also establishes penalties for jurisdictions that do not meet the NIAA's record completeness goals. In addition, the Act sets certain conditions that a state must meet before it can receive NARIP funds, with those conditions referenced under the eligibility requirements in the full solicitation. The overall intent is to couple financial assistance for system improvement with accountability for making measurable progress on record completeness and reporting.

Administrative details from the opportunity notice include the funding opportunity number (O-BJS-2022-171209), a posting/creation date of March 24, 2022, and an original application closing date of May 19, 2022. BJS anticipated making about 25 awards, with an award ceiling listed at $25,000,000. Eligible applicants include federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other entities as further clarified in the solicitation's additional eligibility language.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics in the information and statistics sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2022 NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.813.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 24, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 19, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $25,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 25 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O BJS 2022 171209

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