This Week in Grants News

“This Week in Grants News” is a resource Management Concepts provides to keep you informed of important federal grants-related news from the week.

• Is the Supercircular Coming This Week? With only two weeks left in 2013, the grants community is waiting to see if the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meets its self-imposed deadline of releasing the final Supercircular by December 31^st. At the annual GPA conference in November, an OMB official announced that the government shutdown has slowed the approval process, and if OMB does not publish the Supercircular by Christmas, then OMB will issue the Supercircular sometime following the president’s State of the Union address. The president’s speech is scheduled for January 28^, 2014. The Supercircular may be just hours away…or perhaps weeks. Stay tuned to Management Concepts’ Grants Blog for the latest information.
• Senate Poised to Approve Budget The Senate is expected to approve the bipartisan budget agreement on Wednesday. The agreement sets spending and revenue levels for FY 2014 and FY 2015. The Hill provides additional information about the debate in the Senate.
• With Budget Agreement Nearly a Done Deal, Focus Turns to Appropriations The budget agreement only sets the spending ceiling for the federal government. Following the expected adoption of the agreement, the Appropriations Committee in each chamber will determine the exact spending for every government program. Federal News Radio looks at how this process will unfold in the next few weeks.
• Budget Deal May Restore Federal Grants The Yale Daily News reports on how the budget agreement may benefit universities by increasing funding to research grants.
• Fischer Introduces GONE Act to Eliminate Government Spending on Nothing Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) introduced legislation this week to require federal agencies to close expired grant accounts that have a zero balance. The GAO issued a report in April 2012 that found that it costs taxpayers approximately $173,000 a month to maintain more than 28,000 expired grant accounts with zero-dollar balances. Read more about Senator Fischer’s legislation here.