The White House moved to establish political oversight of federal grants by issuing proposed OMB rules for how federal agencies should implement an order placing senior appointees in charge of award decisions. The same proposal ends an effort to cap indirect cost rates. The rules signal a shift in how grant funding gets approved and administered across agencies, with potential downstream effects on university compliance planning, internal approval workflows, and timing of award negotiations. The indirect-cost change matters because many institutions rely on the ability to recover eligible administrative and facilities expenses tied to federally funded work; ending an indirect-cost cap could alter budget projections for research and grant-funded operations. For higher education leaders, the immediate concern is preparing institutional processes for a more politically centralized award pipeline while monitoring how compliance expectations may change.