Critics Mount Offensive Against Change to Federal Grant Rules
Read full article in CQ Roll Call
Opposition is building to a sweeping government-wide crackdown on federal grant awards, with opponents threatening litigation over a proposed rule that would put the grant approval process into the hands of political appointees.
A request for public comment on the rule by the Office of Management and Budget triggered almost half a million responses, most of them opposed to the changes.
Stand Up for Science, a nonprofit advocacy group that organized opposition to the proposed rule, said it was “prepping with our partners for the legal battles to fight OMB in the federal court system” and “doubling down on the pressure it will take to get this Congress to stand up and stop the OMB rule from being implemented.”
With the 45-day comment period ended on July 13, the next step is for the Office of Management and Budget to review the comments and publish a final version of the rule by Oct. 1, in time for the fiscal 2027 grant approval season.
The proposed rule would replace OMB’s “uniform guidance” with regulations that apply to dozens of federal agencies that award grants, potentially affecting up to $1 trillion or more in annual grant funding.
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Russ Paulsen, president and CEO of Research!America, an advocate for biomedical research, took aim at a provision that would allow agencies to cancel projects — including potentially clinical trials — midstream.
He said that move would be unjust to patients in clinical trials who “have put in volunteer hours and at some point taken on risk, probably to themselves, and who would then be told, ‘Thank you for your service, but we’re going to stop this experiment because there’s somebody new who’s interpreting administration priorities.’”