So, did anything happen concerning grants this past year or was it just the same ‘ol, same ‘ol? Oh, of course, right, there was this trifling little thing called the uniform grant guidance. I think that rings a bell.

The Office of Management and Budget’s uniform grant guidance becomes effective next Friday, so the grants community has exactly one more week to become experts on all the provisions of the guidance. But why wait until the day after Christmas to get excited about the new guidance? OMB and 26 federal awarding agencies posted a joint interim final rule in today’s Federal Register that includes the agencies' implementation of the guidance.

Continuing on with the countdown we started last week as we march toward the implementation date of the Office of Management and Budget’s uniform grant guidance, we now are 11 days away. However, just to make things more interesting, a more critical date to look forward to should be coming up this Friday! Let me explain.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Office of Management and Budget recently issued a memo that implements a new “improper payment compliance framework” for federal agencies. By amending Appendix C of OMB Circular A-123, Management’s Responsibility for Internal Control, OMB is calling for federal agencies to reduce the number of erroneous payments they make to the wrong entity or for the wrong amount.

To borrow a line from the NCAA national basketball tournament, we’re now down to the sweet 16! Yes, there are 16 more days left before the Office of Management and Budget’s uniform grant guidance goes into effect for nonfederal entities. Thus, we begin our countdown to Dec. 26. (Expect to see future posts this month displaying the latest figure!)

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of the Interior (DOI) plans to develop written procedures for its Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) staff to better oversee expenditures within its major grant programs, in response to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation.

When Congress comes into session next year for the 114th Congress, expect to see a whole host of new committee leaders. Thanks to the Republican onslaught across numerous states in the November elections, both House and Senate will be under GOP control. So who takes the reins in certain congressional committees? Some are still to be determined, but there are others of which that we’re assured. The following is a short list of some key chairmanships.