DOT Split SBTTAC Into Six Regional Competitions — Region 1 Is $377,016 and Closes October 31

Nonprofit executive directors running small-business technical assistance across the Northeast have until October 31 to compete for $377,016.67 — the entire value of one cooperative agreement the U.S. Department of Transportation posted to Grants.gov on October 1 as listing 363996.

One Region, One Award, and a Number That Is Also a Ceiling

The listing is OST-OSDBU-2027-SBTTAC-REGION1-FY2027-1, filed by the Office of the Secretary's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) under Assistance Listing 20.910, Assistance to Small and Disadvantaged Businesses. It funds the Region 1 Small Business Transportation Technical Assistance Center — SBTTAC — covering Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Eleven states. One award. The award ceiling and the award floor are the same figure: $377,016. There is no partial award and no scaling to fit a smaller applicant. The cooperative agreement runs a 10-month base period with two option years contingent on performance and available funds.

That identical ceiling-and-floor is the most useful fact in the notice: the agency has already decided what this costs and is not negotiating scope against budget. Your budget narrative is not a bid — it is proof you can deliver a fixed scope at a fixed price while absorbing a match.

The program is new: under "Prior Awards," the notice states SBTTAC "is in its inaugural year and has no prior funding history under this model." SBTTAC is the successor to the Small Business Transportation Resource Centers (SBTRC), the network OSDBU has operated for years through regional grantees — organizations like the Enterprise Center's Mid-Atlantic SBTRC and Florida's FSMSDC in the Southeast. Authority traces to Public Law 95-507, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 644(k), and the advocacy and financial-services duties in 49 U.S.C. § 332.

Six Competitions, Not One National Award

Here is the structural change that matters more than the dollar figure. OSDBU did not post one national solicitation and subdivide the territory among winners. It posted each region as a standalone competition with its own opportunity number and fixed award.

The Region 1 notice states that total funding across the six regions is $2.3 million. As of this writing, three of those regional competitions are live on Grants.gov: Region 1 at $377,016, Region 4 at $250,143 (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee), and Region 3 at roughly $232,000 (Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota). All three share the October 31 close date.

For a nonprofit ED, splitting one national award into six regional ones inverts the competitive math. A single national competition would have favored large multi-state intermediaries with the back office to run eleven-state delivery and the past performance to prove it. Six regional competitions, each with a locked award size and a hard requirement that the applicant have a physical office inside the region, convert a national contest into six local ones.

The notice also caps an organization at "only one proposal per region." Combined with the in-region office requirement, a mid-sized regional nonprofit is not competing against every transportation TA provider in the country. It is competing against the handful of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) organizations with a Northeast office, documented transportation-contracting expertise, and the ability to field the required staff. That is a materially smaller field — and it is why this notice is worth a Northeast ED's weekend.

The Eligibility Screen Is Narrower Than the Applicant List Suggests

Grants.gov lists eligible applicants broadly: higher education, nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status, state governments. The NOFO narrows that considerably, and the narrowing is where most applicants will fail.

To be eligible, an organization must be a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6) tax-exempt entity and furnish documentation as proof. The notice is blunt: "No application will be accepted without proof of tax-exempt status." It must be active in SAM.gov with a valid UEI at the time of award. It must have an office physically located in one of the region's states. It must not be suspended or debarred under 2 CFR Parts 180 and 1200, and must show governance and financial-management systems consistent with 2 CFR 200.303 and Subpart D.

Then comes the subject-matter screen. Applicants must have at least one year of documented, continuous experience providing outreach and technical assistance to small businesses in the region before the application date. Prior transportation-community service is "highly preferable," and the notice says applicants should ideally show five or more years in federal, state, or local transportation procurement, USDOT-funded contracting across FHWA, FTA, and FAA, and bonding, certification, and capital-access support. Staff must include personnel versed in transportation procurement and compliance, the FAR, and 2 CFR 200 — including at least one senior-level subject-matter expert with a minimum of five years directly in transportation contracting.

Named eligible types also include transportation-related trade associations, chambers of commerce, colleges and community colleges, plus faith-based institutions and HBCUs, which the notice explicitly encourages to apply.

The Deliverables Are Numbers, Not Narrative

The base-year key performance indicators are specific enough to price before you decide to apply:

• 67 distinct financing transactions facilitated — loan applications, lines of credit, bonding, working capital, and other approved instruments
• 1,665 hours of one-on-one business counseling, plus both individual and group counseling every month, in person or virtual
• 8 structured workshops, webinars, or training programs, of which at least three must be in person and no more than one may be held in the host state
• Job-creation and financial-outcome reporting for assisted businesses

Every client requires an SF4500 intake form uploaded to OSDBU's designated CRM, where counseling hours, outreach, training, and contract awards must all be tracked. The agency treats that CRM as its primary performance data source and runs quarterly and annual evaluations against it.

Run the arithmetic: 1,665 counseling hours against $377,016 is roughly $226 per counseling hour before you account for 67 financing transactions, eight workshops, three in-person events spread across eleven states, CRM administration, and the match. Organizations that already operate SBA, EDA, or state-funded TA programs can layer SBTTAC onto existing staff. Organizations starting from zero cannot build it for this number. That calculation is the same one that governed SBA's $50M Empower to Grow competition, where ten awards went to organizations that could already deliver training and technical assistance at scale — the pattern we broke down in our analysis of SBA's Manufacturing E2G awards.

Only "Highly Recommended" Applications Survive Phase I

OSDBU will use a best-value approach across a three-phase review, scored on 100 points:

• Approach & Strategy — 25
• Stakeholder & Technical Assistance Network — 25
• Organizational & Staff Capability — 20
• Cost Proposal & Budget Effectiveness — 20
• Risk Management & Program Compliance — 10

Phase I merit review assigns each criterion a rating of Highly Recommended, Recommended, or Not Recommended, and an overall proposal rating. Only applications rated Highly Recommended advance. If no application earns HR, the Department says it will then consider those rated Recommended.

Phase II is a formal presentation — 60 minutes plus up to 15 minutes of Q&A, at the applicant's office, USDOT headquarters, or over Zoom, with notification within five business days of Phase I scoring. Every applicant receives the same three standardized questions, and OSDBU reserves the right to conduct a site visit. Phase III sends surviving applicants to a Senior Review Team of senior Departmental officials assessing alignment with Administration priorities and the Secretary's Strategic Plan. Final selection rests with the OSDBU Director.

Note what that sequence rewards. Half the available points — stakeholder network plus organizational capability — measure infrastructure you either have today or do not, and a live presentation plus possible site visit means the proposal must survive contact with the people who actually run your program.

The Match and the Cash-Flow Problem

Cost sharing is required: 15% of the federal award, or roughly $56,550 on a $377,016 award. At least half of the match must be cash documented under 2 CFR 200.306; in-kind contributions — donated equipment, space, or professional services — may cover up to half and no more.

The harder constraint is payment. Awards are administered "strictly on a reimbursement basis," and the notice states plainly that funds shall not be disbursed in advance. Recipients must register in DOT's Delphi financial management system and upload itemized invoices to its eInvoicing portal for OSDBU program-manager approval. Costs incurred before the award announcement are not reimbursable, and costs between announcement and a fully executed agreement require explicit written approval as pre-award costs under 2 CFR 200.458.

For a nonprofit with thin reserves, that is the real screen: you front payroll for eleven states of service delivery and wait on invoice approval.

Two compliance items deserve a read before you write. The notice applies Executive Order 14173 and deems ineligible any proposal containing racial preferences or race proxies as selection criteria for employment or program participation, with a fuller list of barred activities in Appendix I. Given that SBTTAC's predecessor sat under OSDBU's Minority Resource Center authority, applicants recycling SBTRC-era language should expect to rewrite targeting and outreach sections entirely. The program is also subject to EO 12372 intergovernmental review.

One drafting artifact worth a clarifying email to SBTTAC@dot.gov: the executive summary describes "a twelve (10)-month operating period," while the basic-information section says the agreement is for "up to 10 months." Confirm the period of performance in writing before you build a budget around either number.

What Northeast EDs Should Do This Week

Applications are electronic only through Grants.gov by 11:59 PM EST on October 31 — no mail, email, or fax. The package must be a single PDF submission, 35 single-sided pages maximum excluding attachments, single-spaced, 12-point, one-inch margins, page numbers at the top. Required components include an implementation plan covering approach, timeline, staffing, partnerships, and performance targets, plus a budget narrative identifying the source, type, and amount of match. Grants.gov confirmation arrives within 48 hours; rejection notices come from SBTTAC@dot.gov, and any resubmission must include all original attachments and check the resubmission box on the Supplemental Form.

Four weeks is not enough time to assemble a transportation-contracting SME, a multi-state partner network, and $28,000 in documented cash match from a standing start. It is enough time if those assets already exist and the work is assembly and narrative.

If your organization sits outside Region 1, the same logic applies to the Region 3 and Region 4 notices now open — and to the remaining regions OSDBU has signaled within that $2.3 million. Per-region competitions reward whoever is closest to the ground.

Next step: Search active transportation technical assistance and small-business funding opportunities on Granted to see whether your region's SBTTAC notice is posted and what else in the USDOT portfolio fits your delivery model.