AN ACT to make clarifying changes for the supplementary g.r.e.a.t. grant process in response to the covid‑19 pandemic.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  If House Bill 196, 2021 Regular Session, becomes law, then Section 3.3 of that act reads as rewritten:

SECTION 3.3.(a)  Section 4.1 of S.L. 2021‑1 reads as rewritten:

SECTION 4.1.(a)  There is transferred from the General Fund to the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund, established pursuant to G.S. 143C‑3‑4.1, the sum of thirty‑nine forty‑five million dollars ($39,000,000) ($45,000,000) for the 2020‑2021 fiscal year.

SECTION 4.1.(b)  There is appropriated from the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund to the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology Fund, established pursuant to G.S. 143B‑1373(b), the sum of thirty‑nine forty‑five million dollars ($39,000,000) ($45,000,000) for the 2020‑2021 fiscal year. Of the funds appropriated in this section, thirty thirty‑six million dollars ($30,000,000) ($36,000,000) shall be distributed in the special supplementary grant process established in Section 4.17 of S.L. 2020‑4, as amended in this act. The remaining amount shall be used to fund supplementary project grants previously awarded. submitted and ranked for awards. The funds appropriated in this section shall remain available until expended and shall not revert. All grant awards shall be completed by the Department of Information Technology on or before April 15, 2021.

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SECTION 3.3.(c)  Notwithstanding subsection (b) of this section, of the funds appropriated to the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology Fund in Section 4.1(b) of S.L. 2021‑1, as amended by subsection (a) of this section, any unawarded funds remaining in the Fund shall be used to award grants for broadband projects that were submitted and scored by the Office of Broadband Infrastructure in accordance with the special supplementary grant process established in Section 4.17 of S.L. 2020‑4, as amended, but for which appropriated funds were not previously available.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.