Comment on OMB-2026-0034-0001

(** Please find our full letter attached **) The Collective for Racial & Disability Justice (CRDJ) and the undersigned organizations and individuals submit this comment in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) proposed rule, Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance (RIN 0348-AB88, Docket OMB-2026-0034). The undersigned are committed to ensuring that federally funded programs are lawful, accessible, effective, evidence-based, and accountable to the communities they are intended to serve. Our work spans civil rights, disability rights, racial justice, research, education, health care, public benefits, housing, employment, transportation, community-based services, and access to justice. Across these areas, we share the concern that federal financial assistance rules must protect against unlawful discrimination and misuse of public funds without undermining lawful civil-rights compliance, disability accessibility, research integrity, or program accountability. We support responsible stewardship of federal funds. Federal financial assistance should be administered with transparency, accountability, integrity, and fidelity to statutory purpose. Federal funds should not be wasted, misused, or used to support unlawful discrimination. Federally funded programs should serve the public and should be accountable for whether they reach the people Congress intended them to serve. For that reason, we are deeply concerned that several provisions of the proposed rule would undermine the very goals the rule purports to advance. The proposal is drafted so broadly that it risks treating lawful civil-rights compliance, disability accessibility, demographic analysis, community-engaged research, disparity analysis, and evidence-based program improvement as suspect or impermissible. These activities are not ideological add-ons. They are core tools for ensuring that federal programs are lawful, accessible, effective, and accountable to all eligible members of the public. This is especially critical for research and evaluation. Federal research often provides evidence agencies need to understand whether programs are working, whether eligible people are being excluded, whether neutral policies are producing unjustified barriers, and whether public funds are achieving their intended purpose. Research cannot be accurate, ethical, or useful if it is discouraged from examining how social, economic, and structural conditions shape access to federally funded programs and services. We therefore urge OMB to withdraw the proposed rule. At minimum, OMB should substantially revise the rule to make clear that it does not restrict lawful civil-rights compliance, disability accessibility, demographic data collection, disparity analysis, community engagement, participatory research, targeted outreach to eligible populations, or program evaluation designed to ensure that federal funds serve all eligible people. Our comment focuses on five key concerns: • Accountability Requires Access: The proposal should distinguish unlawful discrimination from lawful civil-rights compliance, accessibility, and program accountability. • Disparate Impact Is Evidence, Not Bias: The proposed disparate-impact restrictions would undermine transparency, evidence-building, and equal access to federally funded programs. • Research Integrity Requires Independence: The proposed merit-review and pre-issuance review provisions would politicize research and weaken scientific integrity. • Accessible Research Serves the Public: The proposal would make research less accessible, less community-accountable, and less useful to federal agencies, recipients, and the public. • Stable Funding Sustains Public Trust: The termination and suspension provisions would destabilize long-term research and undermine community trust SIGNATORIES: Kate Caldwell, PhD Director of Research & Policy Collective for Racial and Disability Justice UCLA School of Law Doron Dorfman, JSD Professor of Law Seton Hall University School of Law Benjamin A. Barsky, JD, PhD Associate Professor of Law University of California College of the Law, San Francisco Critical Legal Collective Patrice A. Sulton, JD Executive Director Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law NYU School of Law Thomas R. Fox Senior Legislative Counsel Center for Environmental Health