Additional Access to Non-Federal Entity Records
(a) In addition to any other existing examination-of-records authority, the Federal Government is authorized to examine any records of the non-Federal entity and its subawards or contracts to the extent necessary to ensure that funds, including supplies and services, available under this grant or cooperative agreement are not provided, directly or indirectly, to a person or entity that is actively opposing United States or coalition forces involved in a contingency operation in which members of the Armed Forces are actively engaged in hostilities, except for awards awarded by the Department of Defense on or before that will be performed in the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) theater of operations.
(b) The substance of this clause, including this paragraph (b), is required to be included in subawards or contracts under this grant or cooperative agreement that have an estimated value over $50,000 and will be performed outside the United States, including its outlying areas.
Background and Objectives
Procurement by micro-purchases was included in the final guidance published on (78 FR 78589) in response to comments provided to the proposed guidance published on (available at under docket number OMB-2013-0001). The intent of the procurement by micro-purchase guidance was to alleviate burden associated with the Uniform Guidance procurement standards, allowing for recipients to make purchases below the micro-purchase threshold without soliciting price or rate quotations, if the non-Federal entity considers the price to be reasonable. Following the publication of the final guidance, OMB received feedback from the recipient community requesting additional time to comply with the Uniform Guidance procurement standards at 2 CFR through . In response, OMB allowed recipients a one-year grace period provided the non-Federal entity appropriately documented delayed implementation in their policies and procedures and they continued to comply with previous OMB guidance. Towards the end of this initial grace period, OMB received requests to delay implementation of the procurement standards further, specifically citing the challenges associated with implementing procurement by micro-purchase. In response, OMB allowed for an additional grace period. Following the allowance of the additional grace period, new cost-burden data was provided by the recipient community regarding the implementation of procurement by micro-purchase. This data reflected that many non-Federal entities have existing micro-purchase thresholds that are substantially higher than the micro-purchase threshold at that time of $3,500. Recipients report that to make purchases above the micro-purchase threshold, they rely on individuals with specialized skills for their procurement offices and the final guidance would require non-Federal entities to hire additional staff at a substantial cost to non-Federal entities. Further, since finalization of 2 CFR 200, several statutes have been enacted that impact the procurement thresholds in the current guidance as summarized below.
D. Promoting Free Speech
Further, OMB proposes updates throughout 2 CFR part 200 to replace the term “standard form” with “common form.” A common form is an information collection that can be used by two or more agencies, or governmentwide, for the same purpose. A standard form is a type of common form; however, standard forms must be used by all Federal awarding agencies, which may not be appropriate for Federal financial assistance given the variety of programs. The purpose of clarifying the term “common form” within 2 CFR is to help encourage agencies to seek common data solutions, increase efficiency, and better account for the burden imposed on the public by Federal agencies. More information regarding common forms and flexibility under the Paperwork Reduction Act is available at:
In addition, OMB proposes changes to the definition of fixed amount awards in 200.1 to allow Federal awarding agencies to apply the provision to both grant agreements and cooperative agreements.
OMB seeks comments on the advantages and disadvantages of changes to 2 CFR (Closeout), including feedback on the amount of burden this may reduce as well as the potential risk to Federal awarding agencies.
Telecommunications or video surveillance equipment or services produced or provided by an entity that the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Director of the National Intelligence or the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reasonably believes to be an entity owned or controlled by, or otherwise connected to, the government of a covered foreign country.
A. Responsibilities of the Pass-Through Entity To Address Only a Subrecipient’s Audit Findings Related to Their Subaward
Currently, 2 CFR part 25 requires all non-Federal entities that apply for grants and cooperative agreements to register in the System for Award Management (SAM). OMB proposes to require all entities that apply for Federal financial assistance such as loans and insurance to register in SAM, which requires the establishment of a unique entity identifier. In practice, some Federal awarding agencies already require SAM registration for all types of Federal financial assistance and the proposed change would make this practice consistent among agencies. As noted in the Paperwork Reduction Act section, as of , there were 159,477 unique Federal financial assistance registrants in the System for Awards Management (SAM). According to data accessed from , in 
FY 2018, approximately 2,952 small businesses who received awards for other types of Start Printed Page 3773 financial assistance did not have a unique entity identifier. Assuming that non-Federal entities with a unique entity identifier reported to are already registered in SAM, this change will impact approximately 2,952 small entities annually. SAM registration is estimated to take two and a half hours per response, which results in 7,380 burden hours annually. Individuals who receive Federal financial assistance as a natural person remain exempt from this requirement. This change is proposed to successfully implement FFATA, as amended by the DATA Act. There is no exemption from the guidance for small entities, because the law does not provide for any such exemption. Recognizing that there are limitations to relying on data to estimate the impact of this change on small entities, OMB requests comments on how burdensome this proposed requirement may be for small entities.
Annual Reporting Burden: The estimated annual reporting burden includes all possible entities for Federal financial assistance that . The estimated annual reporting burden also includes entities that receive Federal financial assistance reported in and either .
The number of respondents estimated in this section is based on the best available data from SAM and . It is important to note that not all registrants in SAM complete applications for Federal financial assistance. Based on the financial data from , less than one third of registrants in SAM receive Federal financial assistance. Therefore, the actual number of respondents and the relative burden ounts.
(i) For any non-Federal entity or Federal agency, if the Federal awarding agency determines that it must protect information about the entity from disclosure if it is in the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States, or to avoid jeopardizing the personal safety of the Federal agency or non-Federal entity’s staff or clients.