NICS Act Record Improvement Program

Program goal(s) name: Improve FBI’s NICS

Program goal(s) description: Improve the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) by assisting states and tribes to improve the completeness, automation, and transmittal of records used by the NICS to state and federal systems.

Program objective(s) name: Improve systems and infrastructure that support national record holdings and background check systems.

Program objective(s) description: Ensure that the infrastructure is developed to connect state and tribal records systems to national records systems operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), including the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the Next Generation Identification (NGI) standards, criminal history information available through the Interstate Identification Index (III), and National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Indices.

All final award decisions will be made by the Assistant Attorney General, unless a statute explicitly authorizes award decisions by another official or there is written delegation of authority to another official. For successful applicants, JustGrants will send a system-generated email to the Application Submitter, Authorized Representative, and Entity Administrator with information on accessing their official award package in JustGrants. The award package will include key information (such as funding amount and period of performance) as well as award conditions that must be followed. The Authorized Representative for the entity should accept or decline the award within 45 days of the notification.

The review procedure for applications is specified in the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and generally includes eligibility and responsiveness, merit, programmatic, budget, and risk reviews.