Review and Selection Process for NCIF and CCIA

Almost 50 federal employees participated in the review and scoring process for each selected application under the NCIF, and almost 40 federal employees participated in the review and scoring process for each selected application under the CCIA. These federal employees served on expert review panels; participated in interviews with top-ranked applicants; provided expert recommendations on selection and partial funding recommendations; and more.

• Expert Review Panels: EPA designed and executed a process to incorporate the diverse set of expertise required to evaluate all applications. EPA created eight expert review panels as part of the review and scoring process to cover consumer protection, equity, financial risk management, financial transactions, financial statement analysis, governance, labor and equitable workforce, and legal and compliance risk management. These expert review panels were composed exclusively of federal employees from EPA, U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Energy, and other federal agencies. Evaluation criteria that were not covered by expert panels were instead covered by panels with broad-based expertise in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s program objectives.
• Interviews with Senior EPA Officials: EPA held interviews with the top-ranked applicants to ensure that the leadership of selected applicants was fully capable of executing the proposed program. Interviews were conducted identically for all top-ranked applicants in each competition, and interviews were reviewed and scored by senior EPA officials.
• Recommendations from a Senior Review Team and Final Selections: As a final robustness check, after the conclusion of the review process and interviews with top-ranked applicants, EPA convened a multi-disciplinary NCIF and CCIA Senior Review Team to advise and provide a final set of recommendations to the Selection Official, who was authorized to make selection and partial funding decisions. The NCIF and CCIA Senior Review Team was comprised of senior federal employees, primarily career employees, from EPA, U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The NCIF and CCIA Senior Review Team met over the course of several weeks and provided unanimous recommendations to the Selection Official. The Selection Official reviewed the NCIF and CCIA Senior Review Team’s recommendations before making selection and partial funding decisions that were consistent with the NCIF and CCIA Senior Review Team’s recommendations.