05-20845. NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook-Research and Development Abstracts

AGENCY:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACTION:

Withdrawal of proposed rule.

SUMMARY:

This action withdraws the proposed rule published Friday, October 31, 2003 (68 FR 62031-62033). NASA will issue internal guidance to automate the collection and transfer of Research and Development (R&D) abstracts to an appropriate central repository where they will be available for use by government agencies and other users.

DATES:

October 18, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Monique Sullivan, NASA Headquarters, Contract Management Division, Washington, DC, [phone], e-mail: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

In the proposed rule published Friday, October 31, 2003 (68 FR 62031-62033), NASA proposed to amend the NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook to include a requirement for the electronic submission of abstracts of the planned research to be conducted under grants and cooperative agreements containing research and development (R&D) effort valued at over $25,000.

The proposed rule added a new provision, 1260.40, NASA Research and Development (R&D) Abstracts, and related instructions, 1260.18, NASA Research and Development (R&D) Abstract Collection, to the Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook. The new provision provided for the collections of abstracts or summaries for NASA-funded-awards with R&D effort greater than $25,000. The requirements of section 207(g) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347) provide the basis for this change. Section 207(g) mandates the development and maintenance of a repository that integrates information on research and development funded by the Federal Government. In furtherance of this requirement, NASA established a Web-based database system to collect summaries or abstracts for all the Agency's procurements containing research and development effort valued over $25,000. A NASA Web site was also established for recipients of NASA R&D grants and cooperative agreements to enter their abstract data. The proposed rule is withdrawn because the automation of the requirements of section 207(g) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347) voids the need for the proposed rule.

James A. Balinskas,

Acting Assistant Administrator for Procurement.