The Federal Times published an article yesterday with some interesting quotes and comments from several federal agencies who are now accepting grant applications through home-grown systems rather than using Grants.gov. Of those interviewed by The Federal Times, the consensus appears to be that agencies will return to using Grants.gov once its current travails are addressed:

Sheila Conley, HHS: “I’m confident if they have a voice at the table and they are part of designing the system, they’ll use it.”

‘[Two DOJ offices, the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Violence Against Women] plan to resume taking applications through Grants.gov next year if the technical issues are fixed… “We support the concept of Grants.gov because it does supply a one-stop location” for applicants to find and submit proposals for grants’ said Beth McGarry, deputy assistant attorney general for operations and management for OJP.

EPA also has committed to returning to Grants.gov “once the capacity and other technical issues … are resolved.”

This is a small survey of agencies, to be sure, but from a grants streamlining point of view these sentiments are clearly encouraging.