Stimulus Applications Could Overwhelm Grants.gov

March 11, 2009, The Washington Post — The first federal casualty of the stimulus bill was identified by the Office of Management and Budget this week when OMB director Peter Orszag told agency heads to plan for a possible meltdown of the government's main grantmaking portal.

A review of its capacity revealed a "significant risk of failure," Orzag warned. A memo sent to agencies said that Grants.gov, a site where nonprofits and local governments can search federal programs and apply for more than 1,000 competitive grants from 22 agencies, is already straining under the weight of recent growth. With an expected 60 percent increase in volume because of last month's $787 billion stimulus bill, the system could just break, Orszag said.