Standards for grant portal drafted

Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999

The Office of Federal Financial Management has issued an initial draft of proposed data standards for agencies posting grant opportunities on FedBizOpps.

Moving more of the $325 billion in grants it awards each year online is one of the Bush administration's e-government initiatives. FedBizOpps (fedbizopps.gov) has been selected as the federal grant portal.

The federal government has been working to comply with the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 since the Clinton administration. The law requires agencies to develop a plan for streamlining grants management and criticized them for maintaining federal grants systems that are "duplicative, burdensome or conflicting, thus impeding cost-effective delivery of services at the local level."

The Aug. 12 notice in the Federal Register is a proposal to establish "a standard format for federal agency announcements" for grants. "The purpose of the standard format is to have information organized in a consistent way," the notice says.

The proposal is an interim format that addresses some but not all of the necessary issues, the notice says.

Another Federal Register notice proposes a set of standard data for grant announcements in FedBizOpps, which eventually will be the central repository for federal solicitations and grants.

The 13 data elements will standardize how grants are listed so users will be able to find information easily and quickly, the notice says.

Comments on the notices are due by Oct. 11.