Section 17.9 - How does the Secretary receive and respond to comments?(a) The Secretary follows the procedures in § 17.10 if:(1) A state office or official is designated to act as a single point of contact between a state process and all federal agencies, and(2) That office or official transmits a state process recommendation for a program selected under § 17.6 .(b)(1) The single point of contact is not obligated to transmit comments from state, areawide, regional or local officials and entities where there is no state process recommendation.(2) If a state process recommendation is transmitted by a single point of contact, all comments from state, areawide, regional, and local officials and entities that differ from it must also be transmitted.(c) If a state has not established a process, or is unable to submit a state process recommendation, state, areawide, regional and local officials and entities may submit comments either to the applicant or to the Department.(d) If a program or activity is not selected for a state process, state, areawide, regional and local officials and entities may submit comments either to the applicant or to the Department. In addition, if a state process recommendation for a nonselected program or activity is transmitted to the Department by the single point of contact, the Secretary follows the procedures of § 17.10 of this part.(e) The Secretary considers comments which do not constitute a state process recommendation submitted under these regulations and for which the Secretary is not required to apply the procedures of § 17.10 of this part, when such comments are provided by a single point of contact, by the applicant, or directly to the Department by a commenting party.