President Trump has sought to place control of federal grant making in the hands of political appointees.
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The White House is advancing a sweeping rule change that would give administration officials more power over billions of dollars in federal grants. The regulations seek to codify that Trump officials have the right to keep doing what they started last year: canceling thousands of grants that they said didn’t align with the president’s priorities, and shooting down new ones for the same reason.
The proposed rules would set up a process for this political review, possibly helping insulate it from legal challenges that stymied the administration in the past. Among many other changes, the rules direct “senior appointees” at federal agencies to take charge of awarding and terminating new and existing research grants and other federal awards—a change that reflects an August executive order.
“Federal agencies must perform pre-issuance reviews to ensure that federal award proposals selected for funding are consistent with applicable law, federal agency priorities, and the national interest,” the proposed regulations say, adding that “federal agencies heads [sic] must designate one or more senior appointees” to review “all discretionary awards.”
