In this guest post, Peter Brass, a former NSF theory director, discusses the recent OMB Uniform Guidance and its implications for federal grant making. He critiques the public response to the proposed guidelines, urging more specific and constructive comments on particularly contentious issues, such as the phrase prohibiting funding that 'promotes anti-American values.' Brass argues for a careful consideration of the actual changes in the guidelines, noting that many concerns might stem from misunderstandings of the pre-issuance review process. He emphasizes the importance of basic research and the need for grants to be awarded based on rigorous and reproducible scholarship rather than institutional prestige, while highlighting that the real threat to research funding may lie in proposed budget cuts rather than these new guidelines.