How does the Washington drama affect government grants?

In the short term the U.S. government is a non-functioning entity, rather more so than usual. Due to the debt limit/shutdown situation, if you go to most of their websites you will get a message saying the website is not being maintained due to the shutdown.

Grants.gov is still displaying, but a highlighted post from their blog indicates there could be problems due to staffing shortfalls in various departments. Of course, appropriations are still to be decided, so that may cause some funding changes when the current shutdown is resolved. Some current funding may be held up as well.

Whenever there is a potential disruption in the free flow of money from Washington, some pundit opines that this will be the end of some or all Federal grant money. That sort of sounds like wishful thinking or a political attempt to add to the fear factor.

The government is not likely to end the granting programs unless we truly do go bankrupt as a nation. Grants are the way that Washington furthers its social policies. Whatever the dominant party in power, the government "gives away money" to achieve some desired goal.

Individual departments within the government are subject to the whims of the majority party. Whether  they are pushing for aid to countries outside the U.S., education, housing, healthcare, or the arts, there will be a lot of money allocated to advancing those programs. Some individual programs may be cancelled, but only because they do not fit in the current administration's scheme of things. Some programs may be moved from grant status to competitive bidding contracts.

Grants and any other kind of federal funding is somewhat dependent on the supply of money, sometimes as a high priority, and sometimes not, but throughout our history, the Feds have funneled some funds back to groups that can advance the agenda du jour.

Forecasting where that money is going to go is far more important to nonprofits in the short term than worrying about whether the supply line is going to be shut off forever. If all grants do end, that will be the least of our worries.