1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

As your constituent, I am writing to express deep concern about the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed changes to the Uniform Guidance on federal grantmaking. If implemented, the proposal would create significant financial risk and instability for federal grantees, including nonprofits, making it more difficult to provide vital services to communities. The proposal attempts to grant unprecedented discretion to any administration to withhold, suspend, or terminate grants, or change terms and conditions mid-performance, forcing grantees to operate in a shifting environment. When a grant is terminated under the agency’s discretion, the agency would not have to provide grantees with any administrative hearing or appeals process. Federal agencies could withhold federal discretionary grants indefinitely in certain circumstances. The proposal would allow an administration to determine federal awards based on partisan ideology, rather than objective criteria, community needs, and congressional intent, while decreasing public transparency throughout the process. Grantees would not know whether and why their proposal was rejected through this process, and they would be unable to challenge such actions. If implemented, grantees will be faced with unpredictable financial, legal, and reputational risks that increase the costs of accepting federal awards while decreasing the benefits. Many effective and qualified grantees may be unable to accept those risks. This could lead to disruptions to essential services, including housing, community development, health, education, food, shelter, community services, disaster recovery, and more in communities and states nationwide. The proposal also threatens important congressionally funded federal programs that help address longstanding racial, social, or other disparities or serve underserved communities. The proposal purports to bar any federal funding from being used to promote “unlawful” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. However, many DEI-related practices and policies that the administration claims are unlawful have been upheld by courts as permissible under the law or can be administered lawfully. Those most impacted are people of color and their communities, which have experienced historic and ongoing federal disinvestment. I urge you to work with your colleagues in Congress to protect nonprofits and communities from these harmful proposed changes by including a provision in any legislative package to block OMB from finalizing the regulation.