Climate Mayors and Urban Sustainability Directors Network Submit Letter to the Office of Management and Budget to Ensure Streamlining of Federal Grants
We, the undersigned, are pleased to submit these comments on the update of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), subtitle A, chapters I and II. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) represents over 260 local government practitioners representing over 100 million residents, sharing best practices and accelerating transformative change across the United States and Canada. Climate Mayors represents a bipartisan network of over 500 mayors committed to climate action. We urge the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to consider the following recommendations when updating title 2 of the CFR to reduce the administrative burden on federal grant applicants. As illustrated in the chart below, local governments have difficulty navigating the federal funding landscape, knowing what funding is available, and knowing how to pursue that funding. This is further compounded by the lack of capacity within local governments to look for, apply to, and administer federal grant applications and awards. Significant changes are needed in the grant application and post award reporting processes to reduce the administrative burden on these local government entities.
Notice Period. We ask that all federal awarding agencies that announce notices of intent to post funding opportunities do so at least 60 days prior to releasing their funding opportunities.
Availability period. We ask that all federal awarding agencies be required to make funding opportunities available for application for at least 60 calendar days.
Grant application. We ask that one universal federal grant application be developed and adopted by all federal awarding agencies to standardize the application process, required forms, application and award timeline, and auto populate the system and forms with information that remains constant.
Grant Reporting. We ask that the federal awarding agencies allow for more simple, streamlined, and flexible grant reporting after receiving a grant award, as well as use reporting forms with components that are standardized across agencies.
Allowable Costs. We ask for flexibility in the list of allowable costs in all grant awards.
Standardization. We ask that Grants.gov standardize their notifications for all opportunities, even when a full application package is not required for submission.
Read the full letter and recommendations therein HERE.
Signed,
Climate Mayors
Urban Sustainability Directors Network