What Is the Office of Management and Budget? (And How Does It Relate to Federal Grants?)

This post was originally published on May 1, 2017 and updated on July 23, 2019.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is an Executive Branch office that oversees the implementation of the President of the United States’ vision across government agencies (WhiteHouse.gov – OMB). This relates to the grant programs implemented by federal agencies and affects how they are managed, their budgets, and the forms applicants complete when applying for a grant.

OMB and Federal Grants

To create a more consistent, transparent grant application and management process, OMB worked with the applicant and grantor community to develop the OMB Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance) in 2014.

We have written about the OMB Uniform Guidance for Grants before, so if you are not familiar with this please check out this blog post for important information especially for applicants.

 

OMB and Grants.gov

Grant application forms are created by grant-making agencies and reviewed and approved by OMB before any applicant fills them out. Why? This is one example of OMB fulfilling its role to improve program management. OMB’s review ensures the forms only ask for information pertinent to managing the grant program.

OMB works to make sure applicants are not over-burdened by completing the forms. Additionally, OMB’s review ensures that forms are not unnecessarily duplicative, so as to efficiently manage government resources.

Are you new to the world of federal grants? Check out other posts in our What Is… blog series.