7 CFR § 4279.260 - Guarantee applications—general.
(a) Application submittal.
(1) For each guarantee request, the Lender or the Borrower must submit to the Agency a non-binding letter of intent to apply for loan guarantee not less than 30 calendar days prior to the application deadline as provided in paragraph (b) of this section. The letter must identify the Borrower, the Lender and Project sponsors; describe the Project and Project location; describe the proposed feedstock, primary technologies of the facility and primary products produced; estimate the Total Project Cost and amount of loan requested; and any additional information specified in the annual Federal Register notice, if any. Applications that do not submit a letter of intent may be accepted by the Agency at the Agency's discretion.
(2) For each guarantee request, the Lender must submit to the Agency an application that is in conformance with § 4279.261. The methods of application submittal will be specified in the annual Federal Register notice.
(b) Application deadline. Unless otherwise specified by the Agency in a notice published in the Federal Register, application deadlines are October 1 and April 1 of each year. Complete applications must be received by the Agency on or before April 1 of each year to be considered for funding for that fiscal year. If the application deadline falls on a weekend or an observed holiday, the deadline will be the next Federal business day. The deadlines in this paragraph (b) relate to Phase 1 applications in accordance with § 4279.261.
(c) Incomplete applications. Incomplete applications will be rejected. Lenders will be informed of the elements that made the application incomplete. If a resubmitted application is received by the applicable application deadline, the Agency will reconsider the application.
(d) Application withdrawal. During the period between the submission of an application and closing, the Lender must notify the Agency, in writing, if the Project is no longer viable or the Borrower is no longer requesting financial assistance for the Project. When the Lender so notifies the Agency, the Agency will rescind the selection or withdraw the application.
(e) Application revisions and updates. During the period between the submission of an application and closing, the Lender must notify the Agency, in writing, of revisions to the Project including but not limited to revisions to technology utilized in the Project, feedstock, Off-Take Agreements, ownership structure, and Project financing. The Agency may require submittal of updated application and supporting materials. The Agency will complete the application priority scoring in accordance with § 4279.266 based on the application materials received by the Agency prior to the application deadline. Subsequent changes to an application that result in a lower priority score could result in the Agency discontinuing processing of the application.