Is there an ID number required when receiving a federal grant?

Summary:

After October 1, 2003, a 'DUNS' number will be required before an organization can receive a federal grant. This item explains how to get one.

Donald A. Griesmann, Esq., a Consultant with Community-based and Faith-based Organizations from Ventnor, NJ, wrote this for Nonprofit (see http://www.rain.org/mailman/listinfo/nonprofit) on August 17, 2003:
The Federal Office of Management and Budget has directed all federal agencies
to require all applicants to federal grants to provide a Dun and Bradstreet
(D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number when applying for Federal
grants or cooperative agreements on or after October 1, 2003. The DUNS number
will be required whether an applicant is submitting a paper application or an
electronic application. Any organization that intends to seek funds after
October 1, 2003, should begin now to secure a number. If the grant will be funded
after September 30, 2003, a DUNS will be required even if the notice of the
grant has been secured prior to that date.

The DUNS number already is in use by the federal government generally to identify entities receiving federal contracts and by some agencies in their grant
and cooperative agreement processes. Among existing numbering systems, the
DUNS is the only one that provides the federal government the ability to
determine hierarchical and family tree data for related organizations. Dunn & Bradstreet also does credit-reporting for businesses, but the requirement to have a DUNS number for federal-grant purposes does not also require grant applicants to participate in the credit-reporting system.

Individuals seeking funds from the Federal government apart from an
organization are exempt from this requirement.

Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) offers a free DUNS number. It takes about 30 days
to receive the number after registering with D&B. The D&B DUNS Number is a
unique nine-digit identification sequence, which provides unique identifiers of
single business entities, while linking corporate family structures together. D& B links the D&B DUNS Numbers of parents, subsidiaries, headquarters and
branches on more than 64 million related corporate entities around the world.

Organizations should verify that they have a DUNS number or take the steps
needed to obtain one as soon as possible if there is a possibility that they
will be applying for Federal grants or cooperative agreements on or after October
1, 2003. Organizations can receive a DUNS number at no cost by calling the
dedicated toll-free DUNS Number request line at 1-866-705-5711 or through the
web sites below. If there is any urgency to the request, a telephone application may be preferable, since the turn-around time on Internet requests is reported to be about 30 days.

https://eupdate.dnb.com/dunsnumberinfo.html and http://www.dnb.com/us/

A notice DUNS number appeared in the Federal Register for education and cultural affairs of the Department of State on August 14, 2003.

CAVEAT: I am required to tell you that I am an attorney in the state of New
Jersey and it has not been my intention to give you legal advice. I may have
given you legal information, but not legal advice.

OMBWatch has a Q&A about the DUNS number available at http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/1794/1/47/.