Nevada grant office urges more staff, authority to safeguard federal dollars
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Summary
The director of Nevada's Office of Federal Assistance told the Legislature's interim Government Affairs Committee the office lacks staffing and technological capacity to oversee a federal portfolio equal to roughly 27.7% of the state's biennial budget and urged targeted statutory and budget investments to avoid audit risks and lost funds.
Akia Sanders, director of the Governor's Office of Federal Assistance, told the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Government Affairs that Nevada must invest in the state office that coordinates federal grants to avoid compliance failures and protect existing funding.
"Bottom line, Nevada has to make the right policy choice by establishing a centralized office of federal assistance to deliver meaningful statewide impact," Sanders said, arguing the office needs both more staff and stronger tools for portfolio management. Sanders told the committee OFA currently operates two offices with only six authorized positions when fully staffed and that the office's statutory responsibilities outpace that capacity.
Sanders said federal funds account for about 27.7% of Nevada’s biennial state budget and that the mismatch between the scale of federal awards and the office's capacity increases audit and drawdown risk. She described operational barriers: fragmented agency reporting, multiple unique entity identifiers (UEIs) that expire, and agencies that do not consistently use OFA for intergovernmental review as required by statute.
The director described a set of practical steps OFA is pursuing: implementation of a statewide grant life-cycle management (GLM) module planned to begin in April 2026, a continuing partnership with outside researchers (a Gwinn Center study financed with $20,000), a certification pathway for grant managers, and efforts to make the office a fiscal agent when necessary to bring delinquent awards back into compliance. She cited two recent match examples: a $1.1 million award to a Carson irrigation district project and $1.2 million to a rural electric association for grid resilience, both enabled by the state's grant-matching program.
Sanders told members the state's grant-match revolving fund approved in recent legislation provides roughly $1,000,000 per year (about $2,000,000 per biennium), which she said is insufficient to meet statewide needs. She recommended the committee consider targeted statutory and budgetary investments to scale OFA staffing and authority so the office can carry out its statutory duties more fully.
Committee members asked whether OFA can produce better real-time reporting on grant activity and whether agencies comply with statutory reporting requirements. Sanders acknowledged data gaps and said OFA will rely on the new GLM system and stronger agency coordination to generate transparent, usable reports and to reduce disallowed-cost risk. She said the office plans to pursue a BDR in the next session to expand authority and staffing.