| (a) No award for competitive grant funding will be
disbursed by the office except pursuant to an application submitted
in accordance with this subchapter.
(b) An application for funding under this subchapter
shall be submitted on the forms and in the manner prescribed by the
office. The office may require that applications be submitted electronically.
(c) Prior to publication of application information
pursuant to Government Code, §490I.0106(e), the office may undertake
an examination to determine whether the application appears on its
face to comply with applicable program requirements. The office may
reject and take no further action on an application that does not
appear to comply with applicable program requirements on its face.
(d) The office shall for a period of at least 30 days
publish on its website information from each accepted application,
including the applicant's name, the project area targeted for expanded
broadband service access or adoption by the application, and any other
information the office considers relevant or necessary. The information
will remain on the website for a period of at least 30 days before
the office makes a decision on the application.
(e) During the 30-day application protest period described
by subsection (d) of this section for an application, the office shall
accept from any interested party a written protest of the application
relating to whether the applicant or project is eligible for an award
or should not receive an award based on the criteria prescribed by
the office. A protest of an application must be submitted as provided
under §16.41 of this subchapter.
(f) Notwithstanding any deadline for submitting an
application, if the office upholds a protest on the grounds that one
or more of the broadband serviceable locations in a project area is
not eligible to receive funding, the applicant may resubmit an amended
application as provided under §16.41 of this subchapter without
the challenged broadband serviceable locations not later than 30 days
after the date that the office upheld the protest. An amended application
may not include additional areas or broadband serviceable locations
not already included in the original application.
(g) If the office upholds a protest and the applicant
resubmits an application in accordance with subsection (f) of this
section, the resubmitted application is not subject to further protest.
(h) For the purposes of this section "interested party"
means a person, including an individual, corporation, organization,
government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust,
estate, trust, partnership, association, or any other legal entity,
that resides, is located, or conducts business in the project area
subject to protest and also includes a broadband service provider
that is not located in the project area but who proposes to provide
broadband service in the project area.
(i) Notwithstanding subsection (e) of this section,
a broadband service provider who has not provided information requested
by the office under Government Code, §490I.0105 or §490I.01061,
may not submit a protest of an application made under this subchapter.
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