Sneak Preview: Federal Agencies Now Must Report More Award Data to USAspending.gov

(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants 360 article.) In a move to boost transparency in spending, federal agencies now will be required to submit additional financial assistance award agreement data to USAspending.gov to comply with new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance.

In response to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) (Pub. L. 109-282), as amended by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) (Pub. L. 113-101), federal agencies were already providing federal spending data to USAspending.gov. OMB Memo M-22-02, New Financial Assistance Transparency Reporting Requirements, issued on Oct. 26, now requires the display of additional information.

OMB Memo M-22-02 replaces previous guidance under OMB Memo M-21-03, which assessed several data-related topics. As part of ongoing federal efforts to improve the transparency of financial assistance spending data reported to and displayed on USAspending.gov, the now-rescinded M-21-03 directed the development and use of a common set of data elements in accordance with the Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency (GREAT) Act (Pub. L. 116-103).

The Grants Data Standards Element Working Group was established to evaluate these data elements. The working group sought to build on Version 1.0 of the core Grants Standard Data Elements developed by the Grants Management Federal Integrated Business Framework (FIBF) in October 2019 as part of the Trump Administration’s Presidential Management Agenda. Those standard data elements included more than 400 common grants management terms and definitions, both pre-award and post-award.

OMB Memo M-21-03 stated that upon updated publication of OMB-approved grants standard data elements, agencies must adopt the elements and update their grants management systems to link spending and award information for display on USASpending.gov beginning in federal fiscal year 2022, which began Oct. 1.

(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)

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