Discretionary awards must “demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities” and may not “facilitate” DEI. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA new executive order increases political review of agency grant-making by requiring that funding opportunity announcements and grant awards be reviewed by a political appointee “to ensure that they are consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”
Citing past grants for purposes the Trump administration opposes, such as DEI, the order says “There is a strong need to strengthen oversight and coordination of, and to streamline, agency grantmaking to address these problems, prevent them from recurring, and ensure greater accountability for use of public funds more broadly.”
“Even for projects receiving federal funds that serve an ostensibly beneficial purpose, the government has paid insufficient attention to their efficacy . . . In addition, there is insufficient interagency coordination and review by relevant subject matter experts to reduce duplication. As a result, the best proposals do not always receive funding, and there is too much unfocused research of marginal social utility,” it says.
It requires that new funding opportunity announcements be reviewed by “one or more senior appointees or their designees” in consultation with “designated subject-matter experts as identified by the agency head or the agency head’s designee” and pre-issuance review by “grant review panels or program offices with a senior appointee or that appointee’s designee.”
“Senior appointees and their designees shall not ministerially ratify or routinely defer to the recommendations of others in reviewing funding opportunity announcements or discretionary awards, but shall instead use their independent judgment,” it says.
Further, discretionary awards must “demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities” and may not “facilitate” DEI, illegal immigration or “any other initiatives that compromise public safety or promote anti-American values.” The order allows for the termination of grants that do not meet those standards.
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