Celebrating the Second Anniversary of the Uniform Guidance Revisions

My how time flies! This weekend marks the second anniversary of the revisions to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) uniform guidance at 2 C.F.R. Part 200. There were numerous changes and additions to the uniform guidance included within the revisions, which were issued on Aug. 13, 2020, and generally became effective on Nov. 12, 2020. Many agencies have adopted the revisions within their agency regulations, although we are still waiting for others, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services, to fully adopt the revisions within their regulations at 45 C.F.R. Part 75.

Although nonfederal entities must follow the provisions within the uniform guidance, they should be aware of certain agency exceptions. Each grantmaking agency has a section within Subtitle B of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Within each part of Subtitle B, agencies listed whether they adopt the uniform guidance in full or if they have certain exceptions for their agency’s financial assistance programs. Thompson Grants provides some discussion about certain exceptions in ¶451 of the Federal Grants Management Module and ¶901 of the Single Audit Information Service module.

And while the revisions to the uniform guidance may have garnered most of the headlines, there also were revisions to other parts within Subtitle A of Title 2 that are related and supplementary to the uniform guidance, therefore the Aug. 13, 2020 final rule was entitled, “Guidance for Grants and Agreements.” These other parts are:

• 2 C.F.R. Part 25, “Universal Identifier and System for Award Management,” which provides guidance to establish the unique entity identifier as a universal identifier for federal financial assistance applicants, as well as recipients and their direct subrecipients, and the System for Award Management (SAM) as the repository for standard information about applicants and recipients; and
• 2 C.F.R. Part 170, “Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information,” which provides guidance to agencies to establish requirements for recipients’ reporting of information on subawards and executive total compensation, as required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) (Pub. L. 109-282), as amended.

The revisions also added new guidance at 2 C.F.R. Part 183 applying a “Never Contract with the Enemy” requirements to grants and cooperative agreements, as required by subtitle E, title VIII of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 113-291). Part 183 applies only to grants and cooperative agreements that are expected to exceed $50,000 and that are performed outside the U.S., including U.S. territories, and that are in support of a contingency operation in which members of the Armed Forces are actively engaged in hostilities. It does not apply to the authorized intelligence or law enforcement activities of the federal government. Under this guidance, a federal awarding agency may restrict the future award of all federal grants and cooperative agreements to an entity, or terminate their grant or cooperative agreement, if the awarding agency becomes aware that a grant or cooperative agreement recipient: (a) provides funds, including goods and services, to persons or entities that are actively opposing U.S. or coalition forces involved in a contingency operation in which members of the Armed Forces are actively engaged in hostilities, or (b) fails to exercise due diligence to ensure that funds are not provided to such persons or entities.

Not only should nonfederal entities stay up to speed on the uniform guidance, they should also note what is included within Title 2 about the exceptions and these other related parts. Along with the Grants Compliance Expert, Thompson Grants provides a variety of training options to help nonfederal entities stay compliant so that they don’t risk losing their federal funding. And the story isn’t over yet; §200.109 of the guidance states that OMB will review 2 C.F.R. Part 200 at least every five years after Dec. 26, 2013, so more changes could be forthcoming in a few more years. Until then, happy anniversary to the 2020 revisions!

Join us for our following Thompson Grants events:
Federal Grants Forum For Institutions of Higher Education | Sept. 28-29, 2022 | Virtual Event
Advanced Federal Grants Forum | Oct. 25-27, 2022 | Phoenix, Ariz.