Executive Office of the President August 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is relocating Circular A-122, ``Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations,'' to Title 2 in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), subtitle A, chapter II, part 230. This relocation is part of our broader initiative to create 2 CFR as a single location where the public can find both OMB guidance for grants and agreements and the associated Federal agency implementing regulations. The broader initiative provides a good foundation for streamlining and simplifying the policy framework for grants and agreements, one objective of OMB and Federal agency efforts to implement the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub. L. 106-107).

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is relocating OMB Circular A-21, ``Cost Principles for Educational Institutions,'' to Title 2 in the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR), subtitle A, chapter II, part 220. This relocation is part of our broader initiative to create 2 CFR as a single location where the public can find both OMB guidance for grants and agreements and the associated Federal agency implementing regulations. The broader initiative provides a good foundation for streamlining and simplifying the policy framework for grants and agreements, one objective of OMB and Federal agency efforts to implement the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub. L. 106-107). Furthermore, this document makes changes to 2 CFR part 215, Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations (OMB Circular A-110). The changes will add to part 215 new references to 2 CFR parts 220, 225, and 230 for the cost principles in OMB Circulars A- 21, A-87, and A-122, respectively; will update part 215 to include a citation for the Social Security Administration's grant regulation; and will correct part 215 to add the amendatory language of A-110 published on October 8, 1999, and to correct a typographic error.

This document and the four Federal Register documents following it in this issue of the Federal Register are related to a broad initiative that established Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as the single location where the public can find both OMB guidance for grants and agreements and the associated Federal agency implementing regulations. The Federal Register document that established Title 2 CFR (see the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section) describes this broad initiative. The initiative provides a good foundation for streamlining and simplifying the policy framework for grants and agreements, which is one objective of OMB and the Federal agencies in implementing the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub. L. 106-107). The Federal Register documents following this one publish four additional parts in subtitle A, 2 CFR. These four parts contain guidance to Federal agencies that presently is in three separate OMB circulars and one other OMB policy document. The four documents following this one are discussed further in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. This first document provides an overview for the sequence of the five Federal Register documents published by OMB in this issue of the Federal Register. It also makes changes to 2 CFR part 1, the part in 2 CFR that provides general information about the title. The changes conform part 1 with the four parts of OMB guidance added by the documents following this one.

This notice announces the 2005 Annual Review of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). The deadline for the submission of petitions for the 2005 Annual ATPA Review is September 19, 2005. USTR will publish a list of petitions filed in response to this announcement in the Federal Register.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has determined not to initiate an investigation under section 302 of the Trade Act of 1974 with respect to a petition addressed to China's currency valuation policies because initiation of an investigation would not be effective in addressing the issues raised in the petition.

The interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) will convene a public hearing and seek public comment to assist the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the preparation of its annual report to the Congress on China's compliance with the commitments made in connection with its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

OMB is updating the annual federal pay raise assumptions and inflation cost factors used for computing the government's personnel and non-pay costs in public-private competitions conducted pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76. These annual pay raise assumptions and inflation factors are based on the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2006. OMB is also providing notice of an update to ``COMPARE,'' the costing software agencies use when conducting public-private competitions.