OMB proposes rules allowing grant cancellation at any time

The Story

The Office of Management and Budget has initiated formal rulemaking to merge an earlier executive order with other administration priorities, creating new grant funding rules. Under the proposed rules, federal agencies could cancel any grant at any time based on a vague assertion that it is not in the “national interest.” The document also would make peer review a secondary consideration and ban grants on certain culture war topics, limit international collaborations, and block spending on publishing and conferences.

Key Facts

• The Trump administration issued an executive order last August intended to alter grant funding, giving political appointees final say and instructing them not to “routinely defer” to peer reviewers.
• The administration lost many court cases because executive orders cannot circumvent legal requirements and can be vacated without strong justification.
• The Office of Management and Budget is now merging the executive order with other priorities and sending it through formal federal rulemaking.
• The new rules would allow any federal agency to cancel any grant at any time based on the vague assertion that it is not in the “national interest.”
• The document would ban grants on a number of culture war topics, limit international collaborations, and block spending on publishing papers and attending conferences.
• Previously, grantmaking rules were handled on an agency-by-agency basis; the new document turns OMB guidance into binding rules.

Conflicting Reports

No conflicting reports identified in the source article.

Still Unclear

• Which specific culture war topics would be banned from grant funding.
• What the proposed timeline is for public comment and final rule publication.
• Whether the rules will survive legal challenges similar to the earlier executive orders.

Misconceptions

No widespread misconceptions addressed in the source article.

Key Figures

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – the agency issuing the proposed rules.
• No specific individuals named in the source article.

Sources: Ars Technica