Letters Supporting MDCP Applications

Not Required
Letters of support for the project are not required or expected. The fact that a public official does or does not submit a letter of support does not confer any inherent competitive advantage to an applicant. On the other hand, some letters of support can be critical to the success of an application. For example, if funds for the cash match are to be provided by the state legislature, a letter of commitment from the state's governor or comptroller certifying the availability of the funds would help the Selection Panel greatly in its review.

No Advantage to Mailing Directly
MDCP award evaluation and selection procedures stipulate that the Selection Panel base its scoring on the applications submitted. Sending a letter of support directly to the Secretary of Commerce or another high official will do nothing to help get it before the eyes of the panelists more quickly than if such letter were simply included as an application attachment without being sent separately to the Department. Each letter submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and other high Department officials is tasked to the MDCP Manager to draft a response, review, secure necessary clearances, and present to Office of the Secretary for signing. This process takes a certain amount of time to complete. Moreover, the Selection Panel has no role in responding to such correspondance. The best way to get the Selection Panel to see support letters is to attach them to the application. There is no advantage to mailing them to the Department separately.

Not Mailing Support Correspondance Frees Resources to Devote to Application Evaluation
Support letters submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and other high Department officials are tasked to the MDCP Manager. Even though managing the MDCP competition is a top high priority of the MDCP Manager, a higher internal priority is attached to processing support letters in order to ensure a prompt response. By attaching support letters in their applications rather than having them mailed separately, applicants can help ensure that more time is available to considering their applications.

Panelists More Likely to See Letters Attached to an Application
Applicants that choose to submit letters of support should secure them soon enough to include them as application appendices. Including these as appendices may make it easier for all reviewers to find such letters in the same place in the application. The Department's standard practice for letters of support not included as application appendices is to make them available to reviewers as soon as it reasonably can do so. For letters submitted separately, this can take some time. The Department will continue to present separately-submitted support letters available to the Selection Panel only until the time the Panel identifies the top-ranked applications.

Suggested Addressee for Support Letters
Support letters with any relevant Department of Commerce addressee can be included in an application; however, the addressee below is probably the most appropriate:

MDCP Selection Panel c/o Brad Hess
U.S. Dept. of Commerce
14th St. and Constitution Ave., N.W.
Room 3215
Washington, DC 20230