So Much To Look Forward to on Our Grants Calendar

Again, the old Carly Simon song, “Anticipation,” swirls around in our heads because there is so much to look forward to in the next few months involving federal grants. After attending a National Grants Management Association (NGMA) meeting yesterday in which two policy analysts from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) discussed the latest on the President’s Management Agenda and other actions in progress on the federal level, things appear to be pretty busy.

One item of note results from the Grants Management Federal Integrated Business Framework, an interagency workgroup under the Unified Shared Services Management initiative, which soon expected to issue a set of governmentwide core grants management data standards. For their part, federal agencies according to OMB Memorandum M-18-24 must submit a plan to OMB by April 30, 2019, that describes their strategy for integrating the new data standards into their current or future grant systems, along with their projected implementation timelines. Once these standards are released, they will be available for comment on a federal GitHub site. We are following the progress on this and will publish and article once they are announced. This article will include information on how to comment on the data standards.

There also is talk that the 2019 Compliance Supplement, which generally is issued during the late spring or summer each year, may be released in early 2019. Because the 2018 version of the supplement only included minor necessary changes from the 2017 version, more focus was put on the 2019 version in an effort to streamline it with an increased focus on compliance requirements that inform performance. We will be tracking any developments on the 2019 Compliance Supplement as they occur over the next few months.

We also are staying on top of any developments occurring with the Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act of 2018 (GREAT Act), which has passed the House and is still awaiting a full Senate vote. Because this legislation has bipartisan support, we anticipate that it will pass the Senate soon for presidential approval.

Another initiative to keep our eye on is The Opportunity Project (TOP), which is being led by the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau. TOP, yet another initiative spurred by the President’s Management Agenda, is a governmentwide, open-innovation project that engages the technology industry with government to create data-driven digital products that benefit the public and drive economic growth. Federal officials said the project will encourage cross-sector collaboration, make government data more usable and accessible, and benefit families, communities and businesses. They also explained that it will advance transparency of federal spending data and maximize public-private partnerships.

Lastly, as part of the President’s Management Agenda goal for “results-oriented accountability for grants,” OMB has launched an informational website that includes a listserve to learn about OMB updates and links to other federal resources. 

With so much going on, now is definitely a critical time to stay involved with developments affecting federal grants, and continue to turn to Thompson to find out the latest.