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Update for
Recovery Act Implementation

One Step Forward, One Step Back for Grants.gov

Grants.gov has posted an alert warning of the need to follow application instructions particularly carefully thanks to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance directing agencies to identify temporary methods for accepting grant applications outside of Grants.gov. See OMB Memorandum

With American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding opportunities expected to increase federal applications by 60 percent, a volume that OMB found would put Grants.gov at a "significant risk of failure," these agencies have opted to use alternative submission processes: Corporation for National and Community Service, National Air and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Transportation, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

So the applicant community must prepare to re-master some individual agency application systems that the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 - and the establishment of Grants.gov as a single portal for all federal grant applications - was meant to render obsolete.
Like the agencies, Grants.gov itself was tasked by OMB to respond to the increased volume ARRA opportunities will create. As the managing agency for Grants.gov, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a 90-day plan to increase system capacity, improve submission processing speed, and enhance the Grants.gov user experience.