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Medina County commissioners urge federal delegation to review proposed OMB grant rule changes
Summary
Commissioner Stephen D. Hambley told the board the proposed OMB rule changes could allow midstream cancellation of discretionary federal grants and broaden compliance obligations; the board asked Hambley to draft a letter to the county’s congressional delegation expressing concern.
Commissioner Stephen D. Hambley introduced concerns about proposed Office of Management and Budget regulations governing discretionary federal grants, telling the Board that the public comment period closed July 13 and that the rules could permit grants to be canceled at any time for reasons including conflicts with executive orders. He said the rule language, as described to the Board, could extend compliance obligations to county-owned property and to programs only tangentially related to federal funding.
Finance Director Brett Thomas told the Board that the most consequential element of the proposed changes would be the federal authority to alter or rescind grants midstream. He said many county grants run two to five years and support core functions including jail management, alternatives to incarceration, court services and victims advocacy. “If a grant were revoked midprogram,” Thomas said, the county would face “an immediate choice between absorbing the full cost locally or abruptly terminating the program.” He added that maintaining prudent contingency reserves could require setting aside roughly 50 percent of each federal revenue source, which he estimated could amount to tens of millions of dollars annually for Medina County.
Thomas also warned of downstream impacts for pass-through contractors, noting that vendors receiving federal funds could suddenly become ineligible and force the county to find replacement contractors mid-contract.
Commissioner Aaron M. Harrison acknowledged the validity of the concerns and said some rule changes may be driven by an administration’s frustration with the pace of compliance with executive priorities, but he agreed that a mechanism allowing grants to be altered midstream would create problematic uncertainty for local governments.
The Board expressed consensus in support of Commissioner Hambley drafting a letter to Congressman Max Miller and the county’s U.S. Senators, as recommended by the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and the National Association of Counties. No formal vote was recorded on the letter; Hambley will prepare the draft for the Board’s review.
