In a previous post, we mentioned how several grants officials attending the National Grants Management Association’s recent annual training conference were concerned about reduced funding for training, especially in light of potential major changes to grants management and single audits coming from the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed grants reform guidance.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Department of Housing and Urban Development is updating its Consolidated Audit Guide for audits of HUD programs. Each chapter of the guide is being updated and released upon completion, and once all chapter revisions are complete, the revised guide will be issued as Handbook No. 2000.04, REV 3.

And down the stretch they come!

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The U.S. Department of Agriculture is updating guidance to help Food and Nutrition Service regional staff members conduct better management evaluation reviews to better determine how well states oversee vendors participating in the Women, Infants and Children program.

Oh, the irony of all ironies. Our colleagues submitting to Thompson’s education blog, Title 1-derland, provided us with a blog entry last week that we thought would be a perfect fit for Funding Attractions. Since it dealt with the OMB’s proposed grants reform guidance, we decided to run with it. The title of the blog post should’ve been an omen – “The Perils of Cut and Paste.”

You’ve probably heard in the news by now about a bit of a scandal we’re having here in D.C., in which the IRS has been targeting conservative and Tea Party organizations for special scrutiny. This town does love a controversy, and I don’t see this one dying off anytime soon.

Oh, the DATA Act. Where have you been for so long? You made big news about a year ago when you passed the House and then, well, you languished. You lost your energy, your fire, and you eventually got shoved to the back recesses of our minds, only to be replaced by a shiny, new flavor of the month – the OMB proposed grants reform guidance.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Food and Nutrition Service plans to review the monitoring results for state administration of the Women, Infants, and Children Program, but has yet to determine when, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report that recommended FNS set a timeline for the review.

Oh, to have a crystal ball. We could look into it to determine how the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed grants reform guidance would turn out, and we could identify which grant programs drew the short end of the stick -- or should I say by how much -- due to budget cutting from the sequestration.

Speaking Wednesday at the annual Brustein & Manasevit spring grants forum in D.C., OMB official Gil Tran illustrated the perils of developing guidance by merging documents.