The President issued a new Executive Order (EO) that, if implemented as written, would dramatically increase political involvement in the Federal grant making process. Under the EO, senior political appointee will have the final say over all steps in the grant process, including which applications to fund (the Objective Review Committee [ORC] decisions would be merely “advisory”) and whether/when to terminate any grant “for convenience, including when the award no longer advances agency priorities.” The EO states that senior appointees may not “routinely defer to the recommendations of others” regarding grants decisions, “but shall instead use their independent judgment.”
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