Comment on OMB-2026-0034-0001

July 4th,, 2026 Honorable Russ Vought Director The Office of Management and Budget 725 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20503 Re: RIN 3133–AG07 / OMB-2026-0034, Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance Dear Director Vought: As a small business owner I write to express strong opposition to Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance and urge OMB to withdraw the proposal. § 200.340 – New latitude to cancel awards. The amendments to 2 C.F.R. § 200.340 proposed by OMB would provide agencies broad discretion to terminate, condition, or otherwise withhold financial assistance based on evolving Executive Branch priorities, rather than Congressional direction. This creates tremendous uncertainty for potential applicants. Organizations are less likely to pursue federal funding if they believe an award can be terminated at any time for reasons unrelated to program performance. This is a particular problem for America’s energy innovation goals: many bipartisan energy priorities are complex, long-term pursuits which require years of trusting partnership. § 200.340(e) — New stop-work/suspension authority. The Proposed Rule would provide broad authority for agencies to temporarily suspend awards through a simple written order, including demanding awardees terminate all subawards and contracts, even though such stop-work orders would not actually be cancellations. Agencies would be able to carry out a “non-termination terminations,” stopping the flow of funds, but leaving the awardee in purgatory. §200.205 - Authorizing political appointees to handpick and personally veto awards. OMB's revisions would require pre-issuance review of all discretionary awards by senior political appointees to ensure that awards advance the President's policy priorities. Such a political filter compromises the long-standing merit-based foundation of award selection. Federal grants should not be based on the political priorities of the current White House. The only Americans that would be served by this policy change are political appointees themselves and special interests they may cater to. § 200.206 - New latitude for appointees and agencies to blackball applicants. This section allows for agencies to make determinations about an applicant’s affiliations and memberships and its “engagement in activities or initiatives” that it may find objectionable, and use those considerations to blackball those applicants from federal funding. Section 200.206 would effectively allow agencies to debar, suspend, or make ineligible an entity at its discretion. It does not require agencies to develop a formal justification, nor to give applicants visibility into, or recourse for, an agency’s decision to deny funding. It codifies a pathway for the government to punish Americans for free speech and assembly. Taken together the new conditions proposed by OMB would make the federal financial assistance apparatus deeply unattractive for American innovators. The proposed rule changes would be a gift to our competitors like the People's Republic of China. They create an environment ripe for political abuse and favoritism, and they codify limitations on free speech. The certainty and predictability of federal assistance programs is essential to ensuring that qualified applicants continue to seek federal funding and carry out Congressionally-authorized activities. We urge OMB to withdraw the proposal. Sincerely,[ ]