The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (“Uniform Guidance”), generally applicable to federal awards made on or after December 26, 2014, contains certain standards with which all federal grant recipients except state governments are required to comply when acquiring property or services with federal funds.  These requirements, termed the “Procurement Standards,” are set forth at 2 C.F.R. §§ 200.317 through 200.326 and focus primarily on facilitating competition in purchasing.

For nonprofits and institutions of higher education, the new Uniform Guidance Procurement Standards were, and are, much more prescriptive than prior requirements.[1]  Likely for this reason, the Uniform Guidance provided an elective one-year grace period for application of the revised standards, instructing:

For the procurement standards in §§ 200.317–200.326, non-Federal entities may continue to comply with the procurement standards in previous OMB guidance . . . for one additional fiscal year after this part goes into effect.  If a non-Federal entity chooses to use the previous procurement standards for an additional fiscal year before adopting the procurement standards in this part, the non-Federal entity must document this decision in [its] internal procurement policies.[2]

In other words, a grantee could elect to continue to apply prior standards until the beginning of its first fiscal year commencing on or after December 26, 2015.

On September 10, 2015, this grace period was extended to two fiscal years.[3]  Today, it has been further extended to three fiscal years.[4]

Under this revised implementation schedule, so long as a grantee has not already accepted application of the new Procurement Standards, it may continue to elect to apply prior standards until the beginning of its first fiscal year commencing on or after December 26, 2017.

The Federal Register notice extending the grace period is available here.

For questions about the Procurement Standards or other grant management matters, you may contact FTLF’s Federal Grants Practice Group at (202) 466-8960.

[1] Compare Office of Management and Budget Circular A-110, ¶¶ __.40 through __.48.

[2] 79 Fed. Reg. 75,871, 75,882 (Dec. 19, 2014).

[3] 80 Fed. Reg. 54,407, 54,408 (Sep. 10, 2015).

[4] 82 Fed. Reg. 22,609 (May 17, 2107).