Sneak Preview: OMB Anticipates Releasing Final Uniform Guidance Revisions Soon

(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) When the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finalizes its proposed revisions to Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, including the uniform guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200), it plans to provide sufficient time for federal awarding agencies to update their implementation guidance documents and processes for overseeing recipients of financial assistance before the revisions become effective, a key official with OMB recently told attendees at the National Grants Management Association’s 2024 Annual Grants Training conference in Washington, D.C.

Although she could not go into any detail about specific provisions that will be included in the final version, nor could she provide an exact date as to when it will be finalized, OMB Deputy Controller Deidre Harrison did note that she expected the release of the final guidance to be “within weeks, not months.”

OMB had four goals for updating the uniform guidance: (1) writing it in plain English to improve the grammar and flow and reduce the inconsistent use of terms; (2) reducing stakeholder administrative burden; (3) including statutory changes issued since the 2020 Title 2 revisions and implementing administration priorities; and (4) making clarifications to avoid multiple interpretations of the guidance.

“I do believe that when we are done, we will have accomplished all four of those goals,” Harrison added. “We are bringing in all of the lawyers from all of the federal agencies, and they are all committed to making consistent determinations moving forward when the 2024 revisions come out.”

Harrison stated that OMB aims to create a balance between easing grantee oversight burdens while still preventing “avenues for fraud.” “We will be watching [the impact of] some of these changes very closely [once the revisions become effective] to make sure we got that balance right,” she explained. “Reducing burden is absolutely critical, but if it could create more fraud, that’s a nonstarter.”

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

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