2 CFR Chapter IV - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is updating the final guidance that appeared in the Federal Register on December 26, 2013. Guidance on the effective/applicability date is revised to allow a grace period of one additional fiscal year for non-Federal entities to implement changes to their procurement policies and procedures in accordance with guidance on procurement standards. Other requirements in the section remain unchanged.

In accordance with a directive from the memorandum entitled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,” published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2017 (Memorandum), the Secretary further delays until May 22, 2017, the effective date of the final regulations entitled Open Licensing Requirement for Competitive Grant Programs (Open Licensing), published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017 (82 FR 7376). The current effective date is March 21, 2017. The additional delay will allow the Department the opportunity for further review of the final regulations.

In accordance with the memorandum of January 20, 2017, from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review,” published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2017, the Department delays the effective dates of the following regulations until March 21, 2017: Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as Amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act—Accountability and State Plans (ESSA Accountability and State Plans), RIN 1810-AB27; Open Licensing Requirement for Competitive Grant Programs (Open Licensing), RIN 1894-AA07; and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The Secretary amends the regulations of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in order to require, subject to certain categorical exceptions and case-by-case exceptions, that Department grantees awarded competitive grant funds openly license to the public copyrightable grant deliverables created with Department grant funds.

NASA is issuing a final rule to amend its regulations, titled Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards to revise the requirements related to information contained in a Federal award for commercial firms with no cost sharing requirement and to add new or modify existing terms and conditions related to indirect cost charges and access to research results.

This rule revises the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) nonprocurement suspension and debarment regulations in order to enhance transparency of the existing process and to clarify the Department's procedures for resolving nonprocurement suspension and debarment actions.

The Department of Justice finalizes its implementation of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 26, 2013.

NASA is proposing to amend the NASA regulation, titled Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards to modify the requirements related to information contained in a Federal award for commercial firms with no cost sharing requirement and to add new or modify existing terms and conditions related to indirect cost charges and access to research results.

The Agencies publishing this final rule amend or establish their regulations to implement Executive Order 13279, as amended by Executive Order 13559. Executive Order 13279 established fundamental principles to guide the policies of Federal agencies regarding the participation of faith-based and other community organizations in programs that the Federal agencies administer. Executive Order 13559 amended Executive Order 13279 to clarify those principles and add certain protections for beneficiaries of Federal social service programs.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Farm Service Agency, Commodity Credit Corporation, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Rural Utilities Service, Rural Business-Cooperative Service and Rural Housing Service finalize their portion of the uniform federal assistance rule and amend specific regulations to reference the conforming changes published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Federal Register on December 19, 2014.

This proposed rule establishes the Financial Assistance Interior Regulation (FAIR). The FAIR supplements the OMB Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Omni-Circular), which was adopted The Department of the Interior (Department) on December 19, 2014. This proposed rule would consolidate the Department's financial assistance regulations and policies derived from the OMB Omni-Circular.

The Department of the Treasury publishes this rule to adopt as a final rule, without change, a joint interim final rule published with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for all federal award-making agencies that implemented guidance on Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance). This rule is necessary to incorporate into regulation and thus bring into effect the Uniform Guidance as required by OMB for the Department of the Treasury.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) is removing its regulation implementing the prior government-wide common rule on drug-free workplace requirements for financial assistance, and issuing a new regulation to adopt updated Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance on the topic. This action implements OMB's initiative to streamline and consolidate into one title of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) all Federal regulations on drug-free workplace requirements for financial assistance. These changes constitute an administrative simplification that would make no substantive change in Commerce's policy or procedures for drug-free workplace.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) publishes this rule to adopt as a final rule, with one change, a joint interim final rule published with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for all Federal award-making agencies that implemented guidance on Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance). This rule is necessary to incorporate into regulation and thus bring into effect the Uniform Guidance as required by OMB for the SBA.

This final rule implements technical amendments to the Department of Labor's (Department or DOL) adoption of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidance in the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards to Non-Federal Entities. The Department is making technical amendments in this final rule; all regulatory language included here is consistent with either the policies in the Uniform Guidance or the Department's existing policies and practices.

On December 19, 2014, the U.S. Department of Transportation, with other Federal agencies, published a joint interim final rule implementing the guidance titled “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards” that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published on December 26, 2013. While the Department received two comments on related implementation guidance, to which we respond, the Department did not receive any comments on the final rule implementing the OMB guidance. Therefore, this rule confirms that the changes that the Department published in the interim final rule on December 19, 2014, are final.

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council publishes this rule to adopt as a final rule, without change, a joint interim final rule published with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for all Federal award-making agencies that implemented guidance on Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance). This rule is necessary to incorporate into a regulation and thus bring into effect the Uniform Guidance as required by OMB for the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.

This rule adopts as final, without change, interim final rule amending the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations governing Office of Management and Budget (OMB) citations and references for federal grant programs. This amendment is necessary to replace obsolete OMB references in VA regulations.

On November 3, 2015, we published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in order to require that all Department grantees awarded direct competitive grant funds openly license to the public all copyrightable intellectual property created with Department grant funds. That NPRM established a 30-day comment period beginning on November 3, 2015, and closing on December 3, 2015. We are extending the public comment period for 15 days, until December 18, 2015.

NSF has adopted as final its interim final rule outlining uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements for Federal awards, pursuant to the approval NSF received from OMB to implement requirements via use of a policy, rather than a regulation. In order to establish a single location for each of the Departments' and Agencies' implementation of the Uniform Guidance, NSF has provided a link to its policy implementation of OMB's Uniform Guidance for inclusion in this issuance.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) published an interim final rule adopting and implementing the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) on December 19, 2014. CNCS publishes this final rule to adopt and implement the interim final rule without change.

This final rule adopts the joint interim final rule that was published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2014. This final rule implements the final guidance Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 26, 2013. This rule brings into effect the Uniform Guidance as required by OMB. Implementation of this guidance by all Federal award-making agencies will reduce administrative burden and risk of waste, fraud, and abuse for the approximately $600 billion per year awarded in Federal financial assistance government wide. The result will be more Federal dollars reprogrammed to support the mission, an increase in the number of new entities able to compete and win awards, and ultimately a stronger framework to provide key services to American citizens and support the basic research that underpins the United States economy.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is correcting the final guidance that appeared in the Federal Register on July 22, 2015 (80 FR 43301). OMB is amending the guidance to make technical corrections where necessary. The final guidance is revised to reflect that due to the 14 day delay of the publically available information entered into the OMB-designated integrity and performance system accessible through SAM (currently the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS)), Federal awarding agencies should review the non-public segment of the system when conducting their risk review as described in the guidance. This will ensure that Federal awarding agencies have the most current information available when completing the review.

The Secretary proposes to amend the regulations regarding the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards in order to require that all Department grantees awarded direct competitive grant funds openly license to the public all copyrightable intellectual property created with Department grant funds. These proposed changes would increase the Department's ability to be more strategic with limited resources, broadening the impact of its investments by allowing stakeholders, such as local educational agencies (LEAs), State educational agencies (SEAs), institutions of higher education (IHEs), and other entities, to benefit from these investments, even if they are not themselves recipients of Department funds. An open licensing requirement would also allow the Department to sustain innovations beyond the grant period by encouraging subject matter experts and users to adapt, update, and build upon grant products, stimulating quality and innovation in the development of educational resources. Finally, the proposed requirement would promote equity and access to Department-funded technology and materials and increase transparency and accountability for the Department and its grantees.

The Secretary adopts as final regulations of the Department the interim final regulations that were published on December 19, 2014. This action adopts the OMB guidance in title 2 of the CFR as final regulations of the Department. The Secretary amends the interim final regulations to correct technical errors contained in the amendments.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted as final, with changes, the interim final rule outlining uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements for federal awards.

On December 19, 2014, all Federal award-making agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), published a joint interim final rule implementing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)'s Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards. DHS and FEMA now adopt, with one change, the interim final rule as final. The change restores language in the FEMA State and Tribal mitigation planning regulations that was inadvertently removed by the interim final rule.