# Congressional Designation vs Federal Grant Award A **congressional designation** identifies proposed spending in an appropriations process. A **federal grant award** is a later agency action carrying an award instrument, approved budget, conditions, and authority to obligate or spend funds. An application or vendor contract may exist between those stages without proving an award. ## How it appears in the corpus - The FY2025 Senate table lists CACIN at $4.5 million ([[ACIN Historical Quotes and Proposals]], `FIN-003_FY25_CJS_Senate_CDS_FULL.pdf`, p. 13). - ACIN later submitted a $5,464,816 application and proposed budget ([[ACIN Proposed Federal Grant and Budget]], `BUD-002_Grant_Package_SUBMITTED.pdf`, pp. 1, 5; `BUD-004_FY2026_TEP_24-Month_Budget_v3.1_PROPOSED.pdf`, pp. 1-3). - The state clearinghouse documents condition award notification on receipt of funds, and the custodian confirms no DOJ award package or approved final budget as of 2026-07-23 (same source, `GRN-201_State_Clearinghouse_Signoff_Email_REDACTED_2026-07-06.eml`; Gmail message `19f93fc1866e1bee`). ## Notes Accordingly, the corpus records a designation, application, proposed budget, and contingent contracts—not an awarded or paid federal project.