As you may be aware, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently approved the Grant Reform and New Transparency (GRANT) Act, H.R. 3433. The bill, which the full House has not considered, is intended to provide more transparency in the federal grant-making process by requiring all federal agencies to publicize the selection procedures for each grant program. It also mandates the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) create a single, comprehensive website for all federal grant opportunities, among other provisions.

Many in the research community have concerns with the bill’s transparency requirements in the peer-review process, which include the posting of full copies of funded proposals online (albeit with an exception for information that is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)). Although many efforts have been made to effect positive changes in the bill, the amount of disclosure required is still potentially damaging to the peer-review process. As such, Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and David Price (D-NC) have drafted a "Dear Colleague" letter, which can be viewed here, to the House leadership urging them to fix these remaining issues; Reps. Holt and Price also are seeking additional signatories to the letter from among their colleagues.

ASPB is closely monitoring this bill and working to remove damaging provisions in the legislation. If you have concerns with the GRANT Act, you can share them with your Representative and/or encourage them to sign on to the Holt-Price Dear Colleague letter. Contact information for your Representative is available at http://house.gov/representatives/. You can either call their Washington, D.C., office or send an e-mail via your Representative’s website. If you do not know who your Representative is, you can enter your zip code into the above website to find out. The deadline for additional signatories to the Dear Colleague letter has been extended to Friday, January 27.

If you’d like help reaching out to your Representative, please contact ASPB’s Public Affairs Manager, Kathy Munkvold, at kmunkvold@aspb.org.