We might as well lock ourselves in our bomb shelters and never return because the future looks grim, very grim. Unless some miracle, 11th hour deal is struck, the sequestration’s across-the-board cuts to discretionary programs will take effect tomorrow.

As a kid, did you ever play the game where you spin a globe, close your eyes and say something like, “This is where I’m going to visit next?” Then you poke your finger onto the globe until it stops and then look down to see where your finger landed. Usually it would be someplace I had never heard of before (perhaps, The Marshall Islands), but if nothing else, it was a good lesson in geography.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of Health and Human Services plans to issue draft revisions of its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families state reporting requirements early this year in response to a Government Accountability Office report seeking more accountability related to “non-cash services.”

So I’m sure all you have diligently spent the last couple of weeks reading every word of OMB’s 244-page proposed grants reform guidance, as well as all the various crosswalks, and now know them word-for-word.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Despite receiving periodic reminders and follow-up letters, several government agencies in Guam have yet to respond to audit recommendations from the Guam Office of Public Accountability, which has stopped just short of taking legal actions to force implementation of the recommendations.

With all the big hoohah in the grants community lately over OMB’s proposed grants reform guidance, one may have missed this nugget coming out of the General Services Administration, which could be very important to many of you out there.

If you got a chance to view the Office of Management and Budget’s webinar on OMB’s proposed grants reform guidance, you got to see OMB’s Norman Dong respond to questions from a panel of key grant and audit organization heads about critical aspects of the reform. There were the expected discussions about combining the circulars, changes in indirect cost rates and the increased single audit threshold. However, there was a particular area of concern that raised a lot of attention — agency deviations.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) Although the Employment and Training Administration is generally complying with administrative requirements for discretionary grant oversight and closeout, it could do more to ensure that grant programs are achieving their intended goals, according to the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

If you didn’t get your fill of popcorn yesterday, here’s a second helping (we’re still on this food kick it seems!). Since publishing yesterday’s blog post about the Office of Management and Budget’s upcoming webcast on the new grants reform proposal, we’ve found out a few more details worth sharing.

As former NFL receiver Terrell Owens said, “Get your popcorn ready!” because the Office of Management and Budget will present a not-to-be-missed show this Friday for everyone in the grants community. (Editor’s note: Hmm, my blog posts do seem to have a food theme lately, don’t they?)