Tracking Federal Changes 2025

Dartmouth Proposals and Awards and OSP Processes:

Proposals:  

• OSP will check NOFOs for updates as proposals are reviewed.  Please do so as well.
• Unless otherwise notified by the federal agency, please plan on submitting applications for the currently published deadline.
• Some agencies (e.g. USDA NIFA and AFRI, NIH Diversity Supplements) have temporarily removed access to certain funding opportunity announcements or Grants.Gov packages. Other agencies may take similar actions based on OMB Memo M-25-13. In these cases, proposals to these agencies and programs will not be able to be submitted at this time.
• NOFO may be revised without notification. Confirm updates from the sponsor have not been issued.
• We anticipate that there may be delays in proposal review timelines. Federal sponsor review timelines may change due to agency pauses. 

Awards:  

• Work on existing awards should continue.  
• Changes in requirements are anticipated to be implemented by award modifications or agency notices which will be distributed, as applicable, by OSP.
• If changes or other information are communicated to you by your Program Officer or other federal agency staff, please share this with OSP at sponsored.projects@dartmouth.edu or the Director (please use general email box and do not just send to your department administrator or assigned OSP contact).
• The terms and conditions of an executed award remain enforceable so long as an award is active.
• This includes the ability to invoice and receive reimbursement.  
• Please review the relevant agency announcements on this page and contact OSP at sponsored.projects@dartmouth.edu or the OSP Director if you wish to discuss your project or have any questions.   
• OMB memorandum M-25-13 that ordered Federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.” – 1/29/2025 has been rescinded. 

Communications with Agency Staff:  

There may be delays in communications due to a pause on issuing documents and public communications.    We understand that this pause is expected to be temporary.

Resources

Council on Government Relations Resource Page
Includes agency memoranda, news and other federal agency notices. 

American Council on Education (ACE) Resource Page, including issue briefings, podcast.

January 28, 2025 Statement of AAU President Barbara Snyder on January 27 OMB Memo Pausing American Scientific Advancement

Federal Agency News

Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate DEI, January 23, 2025

Department of Energy

Executive Order update to PIER Plan requirement  email notice January 27, 2024
DOE Office of Science immediately ends requirement for a PIER plan in any proposal.  For proposals already submitted, no action is required.  However, submitters will have the option to resubmit.

Memorandum for All DOE Funding Agreements or Awards, letter dated January 27, 2025.  Memo mentions that additional guidance will be forthcoming.  Recipients must cease any activities, stop incurring costs associated with DEI.

Department of Defense

Department of Defense Statement Clarifying Defense Contracting, January 28, 2025.  Clarifies that "The scope of the OMB M-25-13 memo on financial assistance instruments does not include contracts."

Department of Health and Human Services

The Acquisition Guidance on Acting Secretary Memo “Immediate Pause on Issuing Documents and Public Communications – ACTION” (January 21, 2025) requires DHHS components to halt solicitations, contract and OTA (Other Transaction Authority) actions, including modifications and new contracts.

NASA

Memorandum for NASA Contractor and Grantee Community, January 23, 2025 linked here
NASA Contractors and Grantees immediately cease and desist all DEIA activities required of their contracts or grants.   Please contact OSP to discuss your award.

Amendment: Updates to Human Exploration Research Opportunities Notice of Funding Opportunity (2025 HERO NOFO)
This amendment removes the inclusion plan pilot program from the 2025 HERO NOFO and is reflected in all sections across the document. A list of the updates can be found HERE.

National Institutes of Health

The 1/21/2025 Memo from Acting Sec. Fink (republished by Science Magazine) includes a restriction on publicly issuing any documents (regulation, guidance, notice, grant announcement, or communication (including listervs) until reviewed by a Presidential appointee. There is also a restriction on NIH employees participating in any public speaking engagement until the event and material have been approved by a Presidential appointee.

Diversity Supplements for all grant/program types: NIH has updated their existing NOFO changing the expiration date to 1-24-25, effectively ending the ability to submit new proposals for diversity supplements. The NIH Guide Notice for this program (PA-23-189) has been removed from the NIH website.

National Science Foundation

UPDATE February 2, 2025:   

From: NSF eBusiness Outreach <EBUSINESS@LISTSERV.NSF.GOV>On Behalf OfNSF Business Applications <NSF_Business_Applications@NSF.GOV>
Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2025 1:27:32 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: Sponsored Projects <Sponsored.Projects@dartmouth.edu>
Subject: MESSAGE TO NSF PI COMMUNITY

MESSAGE to the NSF PI Community,

On Friday, January 31, 2025, a Federal Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) directing Federal grant-making agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), to “...not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate... awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and... not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms.” Although the language of the TRO is directed at State institutions, the Department of Justice has determined that it applies to all NSF award recipients. You can review the TRO here. 

In order to comply with the TRO, the NSF Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) system is available for awardees to request payments as of 12:00pm EST, February 2, 2025. 

This message is also available on the Executive Order Implementation webpage.  Please check back regularly as we add frequently asked questions (FAQs) based on community feedback.

Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders, January 28, 2025 Message to the NSF PI Community

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders web page (mentions FAQ to be released).

State Department (including USAID)

From the order: “Effectively immediately, Contracting and Agreement Officers must not modify, extend, or exercise options or renewals for existing awards beyond the actions authorized below. Contracting and Agreement Officers shall immediately issue stop-work orders, amend, or suspend existing awards, consistent with the terms and conditions of the relevant award. Following a review, Contracting and Agreement Officers will communicate decisions related to whether an award will be continued, modified, or terminated with impacted contractors and recipients.” (Source: Executive Order Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, 1/24/25)

U.S. Department of Agriculture

As of Friday, January 24, NIFA and AFRI have removed all FY25 RFAs from their website, removed all submission deadlines from their calendar, and removed open packages from Grants.gov. This means that competitive proposals cannot be submitted to those USDA components. (Source: NIFA website)

USDA has communicated a temporary suspension of actions on grants in a Jan. 21 memo.