(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently issued guidance outlining the minimum requirements for requesting economic hardship waivers for applicants and recipients of Assistance to Firefighters (AFG), Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant awards beginning with the federal fiscal year (FY) 2017 grant cycle.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Congressional legislation has been proposed that would aim to limit the amount of improper payments made to deceased individuals, a concern that has long received Government Accountability Office (GAO) scrutiny as it reviews federal spending under financial assistance programs.

Perhaps it was the fact that we here in D.C. are preparing to be covered in snow due to an ill-timed spring snowstorm that made us think of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its future plans. In doing so, we learned that FEMA this month issued its federal fiscal year (FY) 2018-2022 Strategic Plan.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of the Interior Office of Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plans to work with state agencies to develop a standardized performance report that will comply with the Office of Management and Budget’s uniform guidance and will help its FWS’ Wildlife and Sport Fish Recreation (WSFR) officials better oversee award programs, in response to a recent recommendation from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

For applicants of National Science Foundation (NSF) research awards, the testing phase is now in full swing! We here at Thompson have discussed this topic in some recent articles, but in case others were unaware, NSF stated that beginning on April 30, NSF applicants will be able to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov. The initial release of this new Research.gov capability will run in parallel with existing FastLane proposal preparation and submission capabilities, so proposers can choose to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals either in Research.gov or in FastLane starting on April 30.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Although the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) has developed a monitoring guide in recent years to better oversee adult education centers and subrecipients receiving Adult Education grant funding from PRDE, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommended that Puerto Rico establish procedures to better maintain documentation on performance data, matching contributions and payroll payments.

For the second time in a week, we’re using this blog space to make you aware that your opinion matters. This week, we wanted to inform you about a recent request for input issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the draft NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science. In a blog post earlier this week, NIH’s Dr. Michael Lauer discussed the plan, which describes NIH’s overarching goals, strategic objectives and implementation tactics for promoting the modernization of the NIH-funding biomedical data science ecosystem.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) Federal agencies providing grants and cooperative agreements to inter-American organizations are not fully documenting their monitoring activities, which could hinder the agencies’ efforts to ensure the funds accomplish their strategic goals, according to testimony from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official speaking before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.