Now, one piece of the agency has found a potentially powerful new tool to flatten the spikes and cut the number of proposals: It can simply eliminate deadlines.
"In recent years, [NSF] has struggled with the logistics of evaluating a rising number of grant proposals that has propelled funding rates to historic lows," but "one piece of the agency has found a potentially powerful new tool to flatten [submission] spikes and cut the number of proposals: It can simply eliminate deadlines," Eric Hand reported last Friday.
But Mr. Duncan told reporters on Monday that he and his aides had not reached a final decision on eliminating the deadline.
The highway administration, an agency of the federal Department of Transportation, was greeted with waves of criticism and has since eased or eliminated many deadlines for compliance, granting much more leeway in permitting nonconforming signs to remain until they are physically worn out.
Moreover, the Florida court held that all late vote tallies arriving during the contest period should be automatically included in the certification regardless of the certification deadline (even the certification deadline established by Harris I), thus virtually eliminating both the deadline and the secretary's discretion to disregard recounts that violate it.
A 2004 law eliminated that deadline, allowing Mr. Turner to pursue his claim in court.
In the final days of the 2000 legislative session, the House of Representatives dropped consideration of a measure to force the six power plants to cut pollution after opponents in the State Senate attached a rider that eliminated any deadline for the reductions.
The new proposal calls for eliminating the 2018 deadline for replacing certain street name signs to meet minimum "retroreflectivity" standards, which make them easier to read at night, and requiring larger lettering.
It was also the deadline for eliminating names from the ballot.
He has already pushed back the deadline for eliminating the revenue deficit by a year, to 2009.
