I. Background: Federal grants behind the scenes

All federal grants require grantees to adhere to federal law, including procurement and subcontracting law. While some rules are specific to agencies or programs, a government-wide set of rules for grantees appears in Title 2, Part 200 in the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR 200). This set of rules is also known as the Uniform Grants Guidance.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the federal agency charged with developing the Uniform Grants Guidance. Agencies are in turn responsible for incorporating the guidance into their grant programs and other financial assistance, which collectively provide more than $1.2 trillion. 

The latest version of the Uniform Grants Guidance was finalized on April 22, 2024 following a period of public comment. While some of the updates to the Uniform Grants Guidance were clarifications of existing policy already in effect, substantive policy changes went into effect for awards given after October 1, 2024. 

Below is key information for how cities can leverage the Uniform Grants Guidance to advance their data, evidence and community engagement priorities through their federal grant applications, including those that are part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

II. Important data, evidence and community engagement takeaways from the revised Uniform Grants Guidance

The new Uniform Grants Guidance states explicitly that federal funds can and should be used for:

1. Community Engagement: The new guidance requires federal agencies to encourage community engagement and clarifies that federal dollars can be used for these activities, for example by providing stipends and per diems to individuals that participate in community engagement activities.
2. Data and Evaluation activities: Clarifies that grantees are allowed to spend federal funds on data infrastructure, evidence-building, and evaluation, including staffing costs.

The guidance also includes clarifying information about incorporating evidence-based practices into federal grants and the Build America, Buy America domestic procurement provisions in federal law, as detailed below.

III. Support for Community Engagement Activities  

Community engagement is a crucial component of infrastructure projects, and a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration’s implementation of BIL. The recent OMB Uniform Guidance makes it easier for cities to implement strong community engagement provisions in BIL grants by clarifying that federal grantees can use federal funds to cover specific community engagement expenses, namely costs related to involving community members in program development and implementation. These costs may include stipends,  per diems, or travel allowances to reduce financial barriers to community engagement, or the printing of materials in another language or hiring of a sign language interpreter to make engagement efforts accessible to all residents.

BIL grants that feature and encourage robust community engagement:

• The Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program’s latest Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) asks applicants to incorporate community engagement throughout the project lifecycle. In addition to community engagement being an eligible use of RCP funds, funds can also be used for the costs of running a Community Advisory Board.  
• The Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant program incorporated community engagement into their merit criteria in their most recent NOFO. SMART winning applications from previous funding rounds incorporated a variety of community engagement strategies. For example, Cleveland, OH proposed to engage with local organizations representing stakeholders in underserved neighborhoods, transportation advocates, and the disability community. 

IV. Support for Data and Evaluation 

The OMB Uniform Guidance clarifies that federal funds can support staffing for data collection and analysis and for in-house or contract evaluations. Allowable evaluation activities include: “evidence reviews, evaluation planning and feasibility assessment, conducting evaluations,

sharing evaluation results, and other personnel or materials costs related to the effective building and use of evidence and evaluation for program design, administration, or improvement.”

Evaluation can also include an assessment specific to a given project or one that covers a larger scope of which a given project is a part. For example, a project on environmental resilience for a specific highway may participate in a larger evaluation that looks at resilience across various types of physical infrastructure.

Related, the OMB Uniform Guidance also makes explicit that federal funds can be used for data costs, including but not limited to “expenditures needed to gather, store, track, manage,

analyze, disaggregate, secure, share, publish, or otherwise use data to administer or improve the program, such as data systems, personnel, data dashboards, cybersecurity, and related items” and building integrated data systems, such as those that allow two agencies or local governments to share data.

BIL grants that feature and encourage data and evaluation:

• Safe Streets and Roads for All demonstration activities require data collection, monitoring and evaluation to gauge how interventions lead to improvements in road safety, which then must be used to inform cities’ safety action plans. The Uniform Guidance allows cities to set up the data collection and monitoring necessary to complete this effort, as well as set aside a portion of grant funding to build the integrated data system necessary to measure road safety more broadly throughout the community.
• The 2024 Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) NOFO’s merit criteria require an assessment of environmental sustainability, which includes making the case that capital projects address the “disproportionately negative environmental impacts of transportation on disadvantaged communities.” The Uniform Guidance clarifies that funds from the grant can be used to set up data systems and evaluate how the project affects environmental metrics such as air pollution in disadvantaged communities, as well as support a broader evaluation of environmental impacts.

V. Prioritizing evidence-based practices

In addition to making explicit that federal dollars can be used for evidence building through data and evaluation activities, the Uniform Grant Guidance also emphasizes the importance of evidence-based practices. In their implementation memo on the guidance, OMB instructed federal agencies to make an effort to prioritize evidence-based practices in competitive grant programs. Depending on the details of the NOFO, cities that incorporate evidence-based strategies for transportation or housing, for example, may be able to submit more competitive grant applications.

VI. A note on Build America, Buy America

While the Uniform Grants Guidance didn’t make substantive changes to the Build America, Buy America (BABA) provisions of 2 CFR 200 that require domestic procurement for infrastructure projects, they did make a technical edit and subsequent request in their implementation memo that agencies directly address domestic procurement in their NOFOs. This will make it possible for agencies to identify gaps in domestic manufacturing capacity and work to address them, including through potential waivers. Cities should take advantage of this opportunity to let agencies know in advance of submitting applications if they are having trouble meeting domestic procurement requirements.

VII. Additional Resources

Results for America has developed a local practice guide about the Uniform Grants Guidance, including best practices for data, evaluation, and community engagement readiness that will help your city to write more competitive federal grant applications.