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Congress each year prior to making scholarship or fellowship
disbursements. The NIGMS official also indicated that the agency
has never discontinued a fellowship award due to a lack of
funding. We find that the listing of approved or recommended
stipend amounts for three budget periods in the notification of
award received by petitioner is indicative of NIGMS's single
fiscal year spending authority and that petitioner's fellowship
support after the initial award period had little, if any, chance
of being discontinued for lack of funding.
We also note that the MARC faculty fellowship program is
designed to provide an opportunity for eligible faculty who lack
the Ph.D. degree to obtain the research doctorate. At the time
he submitted his MARC application, petitioner anticipated that it
would take 2 years and 9 months to complete his Ph.D. degree, and
he requested a fellowship award period commensurate with
achieving that goal. We find that the MARC award petitioner
received was intended to provide sufficient fellowship support to
allow him to obtain his Ph.D. degree, in line with the objectives
of the MARC program. Indeed, we would not expect a prospective
Ph.D. candidate to enroll in a multiyear degree program if his
requested and seemingly approved source of funding was not
reasonably secure for the duration of the program. In sum, we
find that the award notice received by petitioner contained a
firm commitment to provide support for more than 1 academic year,
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