State and local stakeholders in the School Nutrition Program, take notice: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has given you more time to address a key issue related to funding meals under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) said they will increase training for Head Start grant recipients to ensure that their corrective action plans resulting from single audit findings have enough elements to adequately resolve the findings, in response to recommendations in a recent HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit.

Here we go again! If I had a nickel for all the articles I’ve written and read about the improper use of federal grant dollars, I’d be a rich man by now. Even with all the efforts now to ensure that recipients have internal controls to ensure federal funds are administered properly, you still have some instances of blatant mismanagement that simply prove irritating.

(The following was excerpted from the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently released updated guidance, in a question-and-answer (Q&A) format, detailing the requirements for states to develop a risk-based transportation asset management plan (TAMP) for the National Highway System that complies with provisions under Section 1106 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Act (MAP-21) (Pub. L. 113-159).

On the heels of Congress and the White House reaching a spending deal for federal fiscal year (FY) 2018, President Trump has issued his FY 2019 budget proposal. The proposal, like the 2018 White House budget proposal, includes numerous substantial cuts, and some grant programs — particularly key block grant programs — are in line for the chopping block. The budget also included an addendum that addresses higher funding levels adopted in the FY 2018 spending deal.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and agency officials are seeking a resolution to recent OIG audit recommendations requesting the agency to submit required quadrennial progress reports to Congress under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 (BEACH Act) (Pub. L. 106-284). Agency officials, however, contend the reports are unnecessary since they have proposed to discontinue the program.

When something is great, you give it a thumbs up, right? Therefore, we felt this would be the appropriate picture to run with a blog post about the GREAT Act, which is currently working its way through Congress. If you haven’t heard about this legislation yet, you probably will over the course of the next several months, assuming it becomes law.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) As Congress and the White House continue to struggle to reach a long-term budget agreement, which has already resulted in one three-day government shutdown in January, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued instructions to federal agencies related to appropriating grant funding in the event of a protracted stoppage.