FPL 3b Proposal Submission and Review Process
This process began with the Council seeking detailed funding proposals on the potential FPL 3b projects and programs from their respective state and federal sponsors. To manage resources and time, the Council limited each member to no more than five proposals for FPL 3b funding, as was done in the Initial FPL in 2015. Proposals submitted by a federal member on behalf of a tribe did not count against this limit.
Per the RESTORE Act, only RESTORE Council members are eligible to propose and receive Council-Selected Restoration Component funds. All proposals adhered to the Council's Proposal Submission Guidelines and Review Process. Proposals received by the April 24, 2020 deadline were reviewed by Council staff for:
- Consistency with the RESTORE Act priority criteria and the Council’s 2016 Comprehensive Plan goals and objectives,
- Whether all necessary environmental compliance documentation had been obtained,
- Consistency with the Council’s 2019 Planning Framework, and
- Use of the best available science, as required by the RESTORE Act.
Best Available Science
According to the Council’s Proposal Submission Guidelines and Review Process, all FPL 3b proposals were provided to three external scientists to review the application of best available science (BAS) in submitted proposals. These reviews were then discussed and summarized by the Council’s Internal BAS Review Panel. Based on the external reviews and the internal panel discussions, Council members were able to revise and resubmit their proposals by July 17, 2020 to address any identified BAS concerns. The proposals, the external BAS reviews, proposal sponsor’s responses to BAS reviews, as well as the a summary of the Internal BAS Review Panel discussion for the proposal are included in the proposal packages. The full Internal BAS Review Panel Summary, containing the discussion of all proposals, and additional information on External Science Reviewer Demographics are also available, to honor the Council’s commitment to transparency. Learn more about the Council’s work on BAS.
All proposals were reviewed according to the Council’s process and responses to those reviews were developed by the proposal sponsors. In most cases, those responses included revising the proposals to address reviewers comments. The FPL 3b proposals, abstracts and reviews are available for viewing.