The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed changes to the federal grants process to better support the administration's management priorities.
The Office of Management and Budget submitted a draft proposal to revise to the Code of Federal Regulations’s section on grants and agreements. New provisions would support the President’s Management Agenda by strengthening merit review for grants, encouraging recipients to make domestic procurements, enforcing the president’s executive orders on free speech and religious liberty, standardizing data and terminology, and reducing the reporting burden for recipients, among other things. This is the first time since 2014 the agency has put out new guidance on grants, according to a 28-year OMB veteran.
“The [Code of Federal Regulations] revision reflects the foundational shift outlined in the President’s Management Agenda to set the stage for enhanced result-oriented accountability for grants,” OMB said in a press release. “This guidance is the beginning of the administration’s pivot toward actions geared to focus on improved stewardship and ensuring that the American people are receiving value for funds spent on grant programs.” According to the Treasury Department, in fiscal 2019 the government obligated about $766 billion in grants. That was about 16.4% of the total federal budget, the average since fiscal 2008.
In addition to better aligning the process for administering federal grants with the Trump administration's goals, the proposal would ensure compliance with a number of recent laws, including several policy-setting National Defense Authorization Acts and the white house seeks revise federal grants process reflect priorities
