Don't Let Go of the 'Strings Attached'
While much of the attention in the grants environment over the past couple of months has focused on the Office of Management and Budget’s 2024 revisions to the uniform guidance, which came out on April 22, grant applicants and recipients also should be aware that there have been numerous changes lately to certain agency regulations based on key laws and statutes that tie into federal financial assistance. Or as we like to call these regulations at Thompson Grants, the “strings attached.”
Tab 500 in Thompson’s Federal Grants Management Module discusses compliance requirements under multiple “strings attached” regulations and laws, ranging from the National Environmental Policy Act (¶552), Drug-Free Workplace Act (¶517) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (¶532). We have updated many of these sections in Tab 500 recently to respond to newly released final regulations.
For example, the module section on the Title IX of Education Amendments of 1972 (¶531) now has been updated after the Department of Education (ED) last month issued a final rule amending its Title IX regulation. The rule clarifies the scope and application of Title IX; requires ED financial assistance recipients “to provide an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including through responding to incidents of sex discrimination”; and provides “appropriate discretion and flexibility to account for variations in school size, student populations and administrative structures.” The final rule is effective as of Aug. 1, 2024, and applies to complaints of sex discrimination regarding alleged conduct that occurs on or after that date.
We also amended the language in our section on the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (¶556) after the Federal Highway Administration issued a final rule this month, effective as of June 3, 2024, amending the federal regulation at 49 C.F.R. Part 24 to reflect changes prompted by the enactment of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) (Pub. L. 112-141), which increased the statutory relocation benefits for displaced persons and reduced the length of occupancy requirements.
And if you missed it, we totally revamped our section on the Davis-Bacon Act (¶555) last fall after the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a final rule amending its regulations pertaining to the act, the first whole-scale changes to these regulations in about 40 years. Also be aware that we updated our section on debarment and suspension (¶572) to point out some of the revisions that OMB made to 2 C.F.R. Part 180 as part of the overall revisions to Title 2.
Although we don’t officially cover the Older Americans Act within the “strings attached” portion of the module, those impacted recipients should be aware that the Administration for Community Living (ACL) within the Department of Health and Human Services recently revised its elder protection regulation (45 C.F.R. Part 1324), which implements the Older Americans Act of 1965, to add a new subpart D that establishes a consistent set of rules for state and local adult protective services (APS) providers (or “APS systems”) receiving federal grant funding.
If your grant programs apply, make sure to keep abreast with any changes in these “strings attached” regulations. They can mean the difference between properly complying with award requirements or being hit with an audit finding.
Join us for our following Thompson Grants events:
Federal Grants Forum | June 26-27, 2024 | Columbus, Ohio
Thompson Grants Workshop: Audits | July 18, 2024 | Virtual Event
