OMB Revises Its Guidance for Grants and Agreements

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Last month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a proposed rule to revise sections of its Guidance for Grants and Agreements to reduce agency and recipient burden and clarify existing guidance to minimize confusion. The proposed revisions reflect feedback received from federal agencies and in response to a Request for Information issued earlier this year. Of particular interest to the research community are updates to Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Costs Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance).

The Uniform Guidance was most recently updated in August 2020; however, OMB seeks additional updates “to further streamline, clarify, and update the guidance, including raising certain thresholds, where permissible under law, in recognition of inflation over time.” Such updates include increasing the single audit threshold from $750,000 to $1,000,000 and increasing the threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 for determining items considered to be equipment.

OMB also proposes numerous plain language revisions throughout the Uniform Guidance to minimize confusion regarding applicability of the rule. Such changes do not alter the scope of the guidance but are intended to enhance clarity of federal award recipients regarding compliance with grant agreements.

Comments will be accepted through December 4 and must be submitted via docket OMB-2023-0017 on regulations.gov.