OMB Makes Technical Corrections to Certain Title 2 Provisions

On the same day that the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) 2024 revisions to Title 2, including the uniform guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200), became effective, OMB also added relatively minor correcting amendments to two uniform guidance provisions, along with small corrections to 2 C.F.R. Parts 170 and 184.

One change is to the “federal financial assistance” definition at §200.1. When OMB issued Memorandum M-24-02, it provided that, for the purposes of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) (Pub. L. 117-58), federal financial assistance means “assistance that nonfederal entities receive or administer in the form of grants, cooperative agreements, non-cash contributions or donations of property, direct assistance, loans, loan guarantees and other types of financial assistance.” To clarify how the term “federal financial assistance” is applied for purposes of BABA under Part 184, OMB has added a new paragraph (5) at the end of the definition at § 200.1 specifically addressing this topic based on the Part 184 preamble and associated OMB guidance memoranda. This revision is intended to reduce any ambiguity in the text of Title 2 on which forms of federal financial assistance are included for purposes of Part 184.

This definition now reads:

Federal financial assistance means:

(1) Assistance that recipients or subrecipients receive or administer in the form of:

(i) Grants;

(ii) Cooperative agreements;

(iii) Non-cash contributions or donations of property (including donated surplus property);

(iv) Direct appropriations;

(v) Food commodities; and

(vi) Other financial assistance (except assistance listed in paragraph (2) of this definition).

(2) For § 200.203 and subpart F of this part, Federal financial assistance also includes assistance that recipients or subrecipients receive or administer in the form of:

(i) Loans;

(ii) Loan Guarantees;

(iii) Interest subsidies; and

(iv) Insurance.

(3) For § 200.216, Federal financial assistance includes assistance that recipients or subrecipients receive or administer in the form of:

(i) Grants;

(ii) Cooperative agreements;

(iii) Loans; and

(iv) Loan Guarantees.

(4) Federal financial assistance does not include amounts received as reimbursement for services rendered to individuals as described in § 200.502(h) and (i).

(5) For part 184 of this title, in addition to the forms of assistance listed in paragraph (1) of this definition, Federal financial assistance also includes assistance that recipients or subrecipients receive or administer in the form of:

(i) Loans; and

(ii) Loan Guarantees.

OMB also amended the language in the “Compensation — fringe benefits” provision at §200.431(b)(3)(i) to now state (updates in italics):

(i) When a recipient or subrecipient uses the cash basis of accounting, the cost of leave is recognized in the period that the leave is taken and paid for. Payments for unused leave when an employee retires or terminates employment are allowable in the year of payment and should be allocated as a general administrative expense to all activities or included in the fringe benefit rate.

OMB also makes a wording correction under “Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information” (2 C.F.R. Part 170) at Appendix A.1.a.2.i to now state: (i) The recipient must report each subaward described in paragraph (a)(1) of this award term to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) at http://www.fsrs.gov.

It also amends the introductory text under “Buy America Preferences for Infrastructure Projects” (2 C.F.R. Part 184) at §184.3 to now state: Definitions. Acronyms used in this part have the same meaning as provided in 2 C.F.R. 200.0. Terms not defined in this part have the same meaning as provided in 2 C.F.R. 200.1, except for the terms “equipment,” “expenditures,” and “supplies,” which are not specifically defined for this part. As used in this part:

Thompson Grants has included the two corrections to provisions in the uniform guidance in our version on our Grants Compliance Expert. Now that the Oct. 1 date has passed, we will be updating the other guidance under Title 2 on our site as well.

Join us for our following Thompson Grants event:
Federal Grants Forum: Navigating the 2024 Uniform Guidance Changes | Oct. 29-30, 2024 | Virtual Event
Thompson Grants Workshop: Subrecipient Monitoring |Nov. 13, 2024 | Virtual Event