Grants Blog

Posts Tagged ‘technology’

This week Congress will vote on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year. I’ve been looking at the proposal and noticed a few things that might be of interest to grants professionals.

First, while the theme of transparency and accountability grow, Congress is planning to slash funding for electronic government initiatives by about 75 percent. This would impact sites such as USAspending.gov where the public has access to information about federal aid recipients. With only $8 million to spend on e-gov, federal officials would have to make some tough choices about which transparency sites to maintain and which ones to shut down or scale back.

The second interesting tidbit is that the funding proposal would implement an across-the-board cut for all non-defense programs, but agencies would still have discretion over the funding levels for many of their individual programs.

Finally, one of the federal government’s innovation efforts is being de-funded. The Partnership Fund for Program Integrity Innovation would be zeroed out, with only enough funding to cover the projects OMB already committed to. This initiative, originally funded $34 million, was intended to support innovative programs that promoted efficiency and cooperation among federal agencies and states, local governments , and nonprofit organizations.

So, those are my first thoughts on this massive spending package for FY 11. Anyone else have comments they would like to share?

In another new memo promoting open government, OMB offers details of how the fast-approaching Transparency Act subaward reporting process will work and the related responsibilities of federal agencies, prime grantees, and subgrantees.  

For example, in any new awards issued as of October 1 2010, federal agencies must include a new award term that delineates the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) subaward reporting requirements.

Prime grantees will be required to register in two systems to meet the act’s subaward reporting requirements: the Central Contractor Registration, and the FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS). (FSRS was set up as the portal for Transparency Act subcontract reporting and is now being used to also report subgrants.)

The memo also clarifies that subawardees are not required to do the actual reporting; that is the prime recipient’s responsibility. However, the subawardee is required to provide the prime with all of the information needed.

Further, entities that are already reporting this information for Recovery Act grants through FederalReporting.gov will not be required to duplicate that reporting in FSRS.

These are just a few examples of the information included in the memo. You can view and download the entire 51-page guidance here.

In an effort to stem payments to ineligible individuals and entities, President Obama has ordered federal agencies to check nearly half a dozen existing databases before making any financial assistance award – including grants.

In a June 18 presidential memo, Obama said that in the preaward phase, agencies must consult, where appropriate, the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, the General Services Administration’s Excluded Parties List System, the Department of the Treasury’s Debt Check Database, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Credit Alert System or Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General’s List of Excluded Individuals/Entities.

OMB will issue guidance on exactly how agencies can meet the new preaward requirements and on the impact the eligibility check will have on funding decisions.

The memo also directs OMB to coordinate these databases, a so-called “Do Not Pay List,” with the new Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) so that agencies can access them through a single entry point. (FAPIIS was mandated by the 2009 Defense Authorization Act and will include information about contractors and grantees (and subcontractors and subgrantees) that receive more than $10 million in federal assistance. Those recipients will have to provide information about any criminal convictions, civil penalties, or administrative actions against them. Self-reporting of that information would be included as a term and condition in grant awards.)

To view the presidential memo, click here.

In a new memo, OMB has directed all federal agencies to once again begin using Grants.gov now that the portal has been upgraded and is capable of handling a large influx of proposals. The system was overwhelmed last year after enactment of the Recovery Act, and OMB had allowed agencies to move away from Grants.gov and to use alternative methods for receiving applications.

But according to the memo, recent upgrades and planned improvements have alleviated any risk that Grants.gov might fail and all agencies must move back to Grants.gov for receipt of applications by the end of April.

OMB also notes in the memo that the departments of Energy and Interior are conducting a “proof of concept” that would use the FedBizOpps.gov contracting platform for grants. However, OMB gave no details about the effort and said it expects to have results of the test sometime this summer.

The Grants Policy Committee is preparing a response to a GAO report about the timeliness of grant application submission through Grants.gov, and they want help from the public.

The GPC’s Preaward Workgroup is drafting an OMB response to the July GAO Report, “Grants.gov Has Systemic Weaknesses That Require Attention.” This workgroup is specifically focusing on the GAO recommendation regarding the timeliness of applications. Some of the issues being addressed by the GPC workgroup include what constitutes a timely application, how to notify applicants regarding the timeliness of applications, and handling of late applications.

While this is not a formal request for comments from the workgroup, it is an outreach effort designed to gather input from the grants community and offer stakeholders the opportunity to have their concerns and ideas reflected in the official OMB response.

Input can be provided through the GPC website at www.GPC.gov.

It seems there are discussions about merging the Grants Policy Committee and the Grants Executive Board in an effort to coordinate the two aspects of the federal grants community.

As its name implies, the GPC is in charge of establishing policies to implement grants streamlining efforts. The GEB, on the other hand, has authority over the business side of the streamlining effort, including Grants.gov and the Grants Management Line of Business.

But soon the two boards may merge into one. Tom Cooley, chair of the GPC, said at a recent National Grants Partnership webinar that there are plans to merge the two so that policy people talk to program people, and they talk to IT people, etc.

Sounds like a good idea to me…

If you think the contents of the Federal Register can be informative but have found the data hard to use and sort through, there is some good news. The Federal Register has been converted into XML, a form of text that allows users to browse, reorganize, and customize the data in just about any way they want.

For example, rather than browsing the daily contents of the Federal Register by agency or department as you used to do, you can now rearrange the information to see what announcements might affect your grant program or join real-time discussions about proposed regulations.

The transition is part of the Obama administration’s Open Government initiative and was implemented by the Government Printing Office and the National Archives and Records Administration. The XML version of the last ten years of the Federal Register are now available at http://www.federalregister.gov.

Looking for a quick, easy way to track funding opportunities from the National Institutes of Health? Try Twitter.

In mid-March NIH began using the social networking and blogging service to provide information about funding opportunities. Using Twitter, NIH will post links to Funding Opportunity Announcements in a condensed format, about the size of a typical text message. The Institute will “tweet” announcements once a week. (Twitter enables users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts that can be accessed via the Twitter website, RSS feeds, cell phone text message systems, and similar services.) NIH is also using Twitter to post general health news updates.

To learn more and to sign up for Twitter, visit the NIH Twitter page at http://twitter.com/NIHforFunding.