State and Local Grant Management Opportunities and Challenges

With the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan, and now infrastructure funding, state and local governments have a large pipeline of grant options to help further citizen support. In fact, White House initiatives aimed at providing relief to citizens total nearly $6 trillion.

However, applying for and later managing those grants can be an incredibly burdensome, and often manual process. With a wide variety of variables that need to be carried out and measured, the management of these grants involves a large number of people from multiple constituencies both within a state agency and outside it including grant applicants and recipients, various levels of government and agencies, and affiliated nonprofits. Multiple surveys and studies have shown that grantee organizations spend more than 40% of their grant resources on administration activities alone. Continue reading

House Passes Bill Restricting Government Meetings, Travel

Originally posted on Successful Meetings by Matt Alderton.

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday [11/18] voted overwhelmingly in favor -- 388 to 1 -- of H.R. 2061, otherwise known as the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA).

Sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the bill is intended to increase transparency around government spending by increasing financial reporting requirements for federal agencies. It would expand the amount of data reported online at USASpending.gov, require federal inspectors general to regularly review spending data for accuracy, and mandate the creation of a website updating the public about activities to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in government spending.

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