Federal Funding Intelligence Brief (September 10, 2026)

Welcome to Bradley’s Funding Flows, our update on the latest federal funding opportunities. We highlight newly released programs as well as opportunities on the horizon, giving you a clear, timely view of where federal dollars are flowing. Our goal is to keep you informed and ahead of the curve so you can identify, prepare for, and pursue funding that aligns with your priorities. If you would like to discuss any of these opportunities, please reach out. We are happy to talk through strategy, timing, and next steps to help position you for success.

Note: This edition covers newly actionable federal funding released between late August and September 8, 2026, along with two policy developments that materially change the advocacy calendar and the transportation funding baseline. Several items below carry near-term or rolling deadlines. We include them to provide visibility into the broader landscape and the types of opportunities agencies are releasing, even where immediate pursuit is not feasible.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Three forces define this week. First, the Department of Energy released the long-anticipated ASPECT full solicitation on September 4, putting $58 million behind alternative-feedstock chemical scale-up and finally converting a Notice of Intent we have tracked since July into an actionable competition with an October 9 concept paper deadline. Second, federal capital continues migrating out of grants and into credit: The Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital has opened its National Security Fund Finance program with credit facilities of $500 million to $1 billion per fund for critical minerals, and DOE’s new Common Investment screening application now routes a single submission across 14 federal financing partners. Third, and most consequential for advocacy planning, the House has canceled the September 21 and September 28 session weeks, eliminating eight voting days and leaving four legislative days before members leave Washington until mid-November.

On the deadline calendar, the Federal Transit Administration’s $610 million joint Buses and Bus Facilities and Low or No Emission competition closes September 21, NSF’s $100 million State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program closes November 4 with only one award available per state or region, and EPA’s water workforce competition closes October 5. Two policy items deserve immediate attention: The continuing resolution signed September 2 extended surface transportation authorities but declined to extend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Division J advance appropriations, and a federal court vacated HUD’s FY2026 Continuum of Care competition in its entirety, halting a $4.04 billion national competition mid-cycle.

CONGRESSIONAL CALENDAR: HOUSE CANCELS EIGHT VOTING DAYS

On September 3, House Republican leadership announced that votes are not expected during the weeks of September 21 and September 28. The notice from Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office eliminated eight scheduled voting days. Combined with the previously planned October recess, the change gives members roughly six and a half weeks in their districts ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The House returns from the Labor Day break on September 14, and the last scheduled voting day is now September 17, after which members are not expected back in Washington until mid-November.

The cancellation is conditional rather than absolute. Emmer’s notice stated that pending Senate adoption of H. Con. Res. 113, votes remain possible during those weeks, and members would receive at least 48 hours’ notice. Speaker Mike Johnson defended the shortened calendar by pointing to the volume of House-passed legislation awaiting Senate action and to members’ need for time in their districts during a competitive election cycle. The decision followed House concurrence on September 1 in the Senate amendments to H.R. 6500, which removed the immediate shutdown risk and, in doing so, removed the forcing mechanism that would otherwise have kept the chamber in session through September.

The practical floor time remaining in the House is four legislative days, and most outstanding legislative business will not clear that window. Expect the bulk of it to be pushed past the midterms into the November-December sprint. Three consequential deadlines then converge on December 11: The continuing resolution, the surface transportation extension, and the statutory freeze on OMB's Uniform Guidance rewrite all expire the same day, and Congress will have only a few weeks in session to address them. Anything intended to shape those outcomes should be positioned now rather than raised in December, when the calendar will be unforgiving.

The more useful point is that a compressed floor schedule does not mean a closed advocacy window; it means the advocacy shifts to where the work actually gets done. Personal office and committee staff remain in Washington. With members in their districts and no floor votes to manage, staff schedules open up considerably, and this is typically the easiest stretch of the year to secure substantive meetings. Requests for report language, appropriations follow-ups, letters of support for pending applications, and agency inquiries are all better made now than in a December crunch. Members themselves are more accessible too, just in a different setting: Six weeks in district make September and October the right window for site visits, project tours, and the relationship-building that pays off when a specific ask lands later. Leverage also shifts toward the executive branch. With Congress largely off the floor, agency engagement, program officer conversations, and comment opportunities carry proportionally more weight than Hill advocacy through mid-November.

TOP OPPORTUNITIES THIS WEEK

1. Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT), DE-FOA-0003647 — U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation

• Funding Amount: $58 million total; approximately 10 awards anticipated, ranging from $2 million to $20 million. Cooperative agreements with cost share required.
• Deadline: Concept paper (required) due October 9, 2026, 5 p.m. ET. Full application due December 1, 2026, 5 p.m. ET. Posted to Grants.gov September 4, 2026.
• Overview: ASPECT funds research, development, and pre-pilot testing of technologies that produce chemicals from alternative and waste feedstocks. It is issued by the Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office under DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. Topic Area 1 supports bench-scale R&D and unit-operation work for technologies past proof-of-concept; Topic Area 2 funds the design, construction, and operation of integrated pre-pilot facilities. Each topic area has two subtopics offering different entry points based on technology maturity.
• Why It Matters: This is the release we have been tracking since the July Notice of Intent, and it lands squarely on the administration’s domestic manufacturing and supply-chain resilience priorities. The program explicitly targets chemicals that reduce U.S. import dependence, improve supply chain resiliency, or benefit foreign trade and national security. Awards of up to $20 million with a streamlined concept-paper-first process make this one of the more accessible large industrial competitions in the current cycle. It is worth being precise about scope: ASPECT is an alternative-feedstocks chemicals program, not a critical minerals program, notwithstanding the CMEI parent office.
• Ideal Applicants: Specialty and industrial chemical manufacturers, bio-based product companies, waste-to-chemical developers, process technology firms, agricultural processors, and national laboratories or universities partnered with industry. Project teams must include at least one for-profit industry entity. Institutions of higher education may lead only under Topic Area 1; for Topic Area 2 they are limited to subrecipient roles, as are FFRDCs, NETL, and non-DOE federal entities.

2. National Security Fund Finance (NSFF) Program — U.S. Department of War, Office of Strategic Capital

• Funding Amount: Multi-draw term loans to qualified fund managers. Each credit facility is anticipated to range from $500 million to $1 billion per fund, generally capped at 125% of the fund’s eligible private equity capitalization.
• Deadline: Complete proposals due November 1, 2026, 5 p.m. ET. OSC expects to select parties for due diligence by January 10, 2027, and to issue conditional commitments by March 10, 2027. NOFO posted August 20, 2026.
• Overview: NSFF is a fund-level financing vehicle, not a grant program and not a direct company solicitation. OSC lends to professionally managed debt investment funds, which combine the federal facility with privately raised capital to make secured loans to portfolio companies addressing gaps, shortages, and vulnerabilities in critical minerals and materials supply chains. Funding was provided through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Applicants must be debt fund managers formed under U.S. law and registered in SAM.gov.
• Why It Matters: This is the clearest signal yet that the largest federal dollars in critical minerals are moving through credit and fund structures rather than competitive grants. It is a substantial expansion of the model OSC built with SBA through the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies initiative, where participating funds could access up to $250 million in SBA-backed leverage; NSFF operates at two to four times that scale and is administered directly by OSC. For operating companies in the critical minerals space, the strategic implication is indirect but real: A new pool of federally supported debt capital is being assembled, and being known to the fund managers who win these facilities will matter more in 2027 than any single grant application.
• Ideal Applicants: Direct applicants are private credit and specialty finance fund managers with a demonstrated critical minerals, industrials, or energy transition track record and the ability to raise the required private capital. The indirect beneficiary set is far larger: mining and processing companies, refiners, magnet and alloy producers, recyclers, and downstream manufacturers seeking project debt.

3. State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs, NSF 26-513 — National Science Foundation

• Funding Amount: Approximately $100 million available. Estimated 10 awards, with typical proposals requesting $4 million to $12 million over five years. Planning grants also anticipated.
• Deadline: Full proposals due November 4, 2026, by 5 p.m. submitting organization’s local time. Solicitation published July 31, 2026, and last updated August 21, 2026.
• Overview: The program funds state or regional consortia of state and local governments, research institutions, philanthropies, and the private sector to expand access to advanced computing and AI infrastructure. Critically, the consortium is responsible for funding the compute itself, whether on premises or cloud-based. NSF funds consortium coordination, AI infrastructure workforce development, and faculty training and coursework development. The program responds to the July 2026 OSTP report, Science: A New Golden Age, and to the FY2028 R&D Priorities Memorandum.
• Why It Matters: Only one award will be made per state or multi-state region. That single constraint converts this from a proposal competition into a coalition-building race, and it is the sharpest example this cycle of a program where early coalition-building creates a significant first-mover advantage. For states without a dominant R1 institution, a well-constructed multi-institution consortium can beat a stronger single university elsewhere. The program also sits at the intersection of two priorities that are not going away: AI capacity and workforce development.
• Ideal Applicants: Institutions of higher education leading state or regional consortia, in partnership with state governments, economic development organizations, community and technical colleges, national laboratories, philanthropies, and private sector compute and cloud providers. Each PI institution may submit only one proposal, and an individual may participate in at most one proposal as PI, co-PI, or senior personnel.

4. FY2026 Buses and Bus Facilities, Low or No Emission, and Bus Safety Research Programs — Federal Transit Administration

• Funding Amount: $610 million combined for the joint Buses and Bus Facilities and Low or No Emission competition, comprising approximately $21 million for the Bus Program and approximately $589 million for Low or No. Separately, $10 million for the Bus Safety, Accessibility, and Innovation Research Program. There is no minimum award; the Bus program caps individual awards at 10% of the total available, and Low or No has no maximum.
• Deadline: Buses and Bus Facilities/Low or No applications due September 21, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET via Grants.gov. Bus Safety, Accessibility, and Innovation Research applications due September 28, 2026 (funding opportunity ID FTA-2026-004-TRI). Both NOFOs were published in late July.
• Overview: The joint NOFO funds the purchase, rehabilitation, and lease of buses and related equipment and facilities, with the Low or No portion directed at low- and no-emission propulsion. Any zero-emission project must dedicate 5% of federal funds to workforce development unless the applicant certifies less is needed. By statute, FTA must make selections within 75 days of the application due date. The research program addresses transit bus safety and accessibility issues, including operator assaults and operator visibility.
• Why It Matters: These are the largest imminent transit deadlines on the board, and the statutory 75-day selection clock means awards land in early December. They also sit directly in the path of the transportation funding disruption described below; because the continuing resolution did not extend IIJA Division J advance appropriations, transit programs face an approximately 20% reduction from FY2026 levels beginning October 1. The current FY2026 competition is funded at the announced $610 million level, but the loss of IIJA advance appropriations creates significant uncertainty around the scale of comparable FY2027 transit opportunities.
• Ideal Applicants: Transit agencies, states and state DOTs, local governments and public transit providers, tribal transit operators, and consortia. Recipients with more than $10 million in aggregate active federal awards must maintain current responsibility and qualification records in SAM.gov.

5. Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Grant, EPA-OW-OWM-26-03 — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Funding Amount: $10.8 million total; approximately 15 awards anticipated, with a $7.8 million cap in Project Area 1. Cooperative agreements. No cost share or match required.
• Deadline: Applications due October 5, 2026. Posted August 19, 2026.
• Overview: Issued under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Section 1459E, the program funds efforts to expand career pipelines in the drinking water and wastewater utility sector. Eligible activities include apprenticeship and internship programs, education programs spanning elementary through higher education, regional industry collaborations, and training for the decentralized workforce. EPA frames the program under its Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative, Pillar 1, and under Make America Healthy Again goals.
• Why It Matters: Utility workforce succession is one of the few water sector problems with genuine bipartisan urgency, and this is a rare no-match federal program in a space where most water funding requires substantial local contribution. The absence of a cost-share requirement makes it accessible to smaller nonprofits, community colleges, and rural utility associations that cannot compete for capital programs. The award ceiling relative to total funding suggests EPA is open to at least one or two large regional or national-scope proposals alongside smaller local efforts.
• Ideal Applicants: Institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, and public works departments and agencies. Community and technical colleges, state rural water associations, utility trade associations, workforce boards partnered with an eligible lead, and regional utility consortia are natural fits.

6. Common Investment — Initial Screening Application — U.S. Department of Energy, on behalf of a multi-agency federal financing partnership

• Funding Amount: Not a single funding pool. The application routes projects to equity investments, direct loans, loan guarantees, and other support, including grants where available, across DOE and partner agencies, including the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the Export-Import Bank, and the Office of Strategic Capital. DOE describes the gateway as connecting projects with 14 federal partners; outside analyses estimate more than half a trillion dollars in potentially accessible federal financing capacity.
• Deadline: Applications accepted on a continuous basis. Launched July 24, 2026.
• Overview: The Common Investment Initial Screening Application is a single intake form allowing companies to nominate energy infrastructure, critical minerals, materials, and mining projects for consideration across more than a dozen federal financing programs at once. DOE states the base form takes roughly 20 minutes, though the questions are substantive: products and annual production quantities, purity levels, total financing need, development timeline, projected share of U.S. demand, offtake contracting status, position on the global cost curve, permitting and EPC readiness, whether an independent bankable feasibility study exists, and exposure to foreign-adversary markets. Applicants may attach a capability statement.
• Why It Matters: This is the most efficient single point of entry into federal industrial finance that currently exists, and most eligible companies have not heard of it. It also functions as a diagnostic: The questions reveal exactly what the interagency financing community now considers table stakes, contracted offtake, bankable feasibility, permitting readiness, and a defensible cost-curve position. A company that cannot answer those questions crisply is not ready for federal capital regardless of which program it applies to. Submission creates no funding commitment and no obligation, which makes the risk-reward unusually favorable.
• Ideal Applicants: Energy infrastructure developers, critical minerals and materials companies, mining and processing firms, refiners, advanced manufacturers with heavy capital needs, and midstream and logistics companies. The form accommodates projects located outside the United States, though the qualifying conditions for foreign projects are not clearly specified.

7. WaterSMART Program — Cooperative Watershed Management and Related Windows — Bureau of Reclamation

• Funding Amount: Varies by subprogram. The Cooperative Watershed Management Program funds watershed group development, restoration planning, and watershed management project planning and design. Related WaterSMART windows include Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse, Desalination Construction, Enhancing Water Resources, and Water and Energy Efficiency Grants, each with distinct ceilings and cost-share requirements.
• Deadline: Cooperative Watershed Management Program (R26AS00349), first round October 7, 2026, 4 p.m. The first round of the Enhancing Water Resources Projects (R26AS00017) closed September 9 but a second round remains available in 2027. Title XVI (R26AS00079, round 1) and Desalination Construction (R26AS00034) closed August 26, 2026. Water and Energy Efficiency Grants are expected in fall 2026 with the date not yet announced.
• Overview: WaterSMART is Reclamation’s umbrella for water conservation, reuse, and reliability funding in the western states, encompassing seven subprograms. Reclamation leverages federal and non-federal funding to work with states, tribes, and local entities on infrastructure investment and local water management needs. Since 2010 the program has funded more than 2,400 projects with $3.4 billion in federal funding against nearly $9 billion in non-federal contributions.
• Why It Matters: For western water organizations, this is the most reliable recurring federal source, and the current NOFOs explicitly frame the program against administration priorities, including Executive Order 14154. The near-term Cooperative Watershed Management window is the right entry point for those who are not yet construction ready, because it funds the planning and coalition work that later makes a capital application competitive. Note also that IIJA construction authority for several Reclamation water programs expires at the end of FY2026, with reauthorization bills pending in the 119th Congress, a consideration for multi-year project planning.
• Ideal Applicants: Eligibility varies by subprogram. The current Cooperative Watershed Management Program is limited to existing watershed groups or sponsors of new groups in 19 specified states, Puerto Rico, and four territories. Other WaterSMART windows have their own applicant, geographic, and cost-share rules.

EMERGING TRENDS & INSIGHTS

• Transportation faces a real funding cliff even though authorities were extended. The continuing resolution signed September 2 extended surface transportation authorities through December 11 but did not extend the IIJA Division J advance appropriations. The practical result is an approximately 20% reduction in federal public transit investment from FY2026 levels and an approximately 81% reduction for passenger rail beginning October 1 per the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Highway Trust Fund contract authority fared better: The CR extends the availability of unobligated contract authority for allocated discretionary programs, including the Bridge Investment Program, INFRA, Rural Surface Transportation, and the Wildlife Crossing Pilot through September 30, 2027. Those with transit or rail projects in the pipeline should be recalibrating expectations now, and stakeholder coalitions are actively pressing for restoration of advance appropriations in whatever vehicle follows December 11.

• The grants rules rewrite is frozen but not dead. Section 157 of the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, bars OMB from issuing or finalizing its May 29 proposed rewrite of 2 CFR Part 200, or any substantially similar rule, through December 11, 2026. If OMB were to finalize before enactment, the rule would have no force through that date. OMB’s planned October 1 effective date is therefore blocked. The freeze does not withdraw the proposal, and OMB remains free to review comments and prepare revisions; reported comment volume on the rulemaking approached 500,000. This is a pause, not a resolution, and the discretionary termination authority and pre-issuance review provisions that drew the most concern remain live possibilities for 2027.

• Litigation is now a first-order variable in grant strategy. On August 7, Judge Mary S. McElroy of the District of Rhode Island vacated HUD’s FY2026 Continuum of Care NOFO in its entirety, finding that a $1.3 billion set-aside favoring transitional housing and supportive services over the Housing First model was an incentive requiring notice-and-comment under the McKinney-Vento Act, and that HUD’s failure to provide it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. HUD confirmed the August 26 deadline is no longer in force and that it cannot accept applications; it is evaluating options, including an appeal. This is the second consecutive year the court has set aside a CoC NOFO on similar grounds. The broader lesson generalizes well beyond homelessness: When an agency changes program priorities without process, the resulting competition is legally fragile, and organizations should factor litigation risk into pipeline planning for any program undergoing a significant policy shift.

• Critical minerals remain a very active federal funding lane. DOE’s $500 million award announcement on August 20 across seven critical mineral and battery projects, the OSC Fund Finance program, the Common Investment gateway, and the ASPECT release all point in the same direction. Awards in the August round ranged from $50 million to $100 million per project and covered lithium extraction and refining, cobalt refining, silicon-anode manufacturing, and lithium-metal films. Meanwhile DOE has issued a Notice of Intent for a program designated PROSPECT (DE-FOA-0003662) and a Request for Information on an Industrial Technology Capital Connector to link private capital with CMEI-supported technology developers. The pipeline of critical minerals opportunities is not slowing.

If you are interested in pursuing any of these opportunities or identifying others aligned with your priorities, Bradley’s Governmental Affairs team is well-positioned to help. We work closely with clients to navigate the federal funding landscape, develop competitive applications, and engage directly with agency and congressional stakeholders to maximize success — including a fast read on how the December 11 convergence could affect your current or planned awards.