Viva ‘Contractification’: New Executive Order Promises Changes to Grant Oversight
In its continuous drive to alter business as usual, the federal government has made many changes this year to the way it manages financial assistance (grants and cooperative agreements). Executive Order 14332, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking,” issued on August 7, 2025, is the latest expression of this new effort and evidences the government’s intent to exert more control over grants and cooperative agreements. The changes generally fall within the inherently flexible framework the government has over such awards, but taken as a whole—and given the framing and rhetoric of the EO—the government’s approach, whether intentional or not, resembles “contractification,” that is, to remake the administration of grants and cooperative agreements to be more like procurement contracts.