In 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued Federal Executive Order (EO) 12372. The EO instituted a voluntary process for review of applications for federal funding assistance and established a comment period for local community input.

Since 1982, more than half the states have reduced the number of types of grants they choose to review or the states have elected to discontinue the review process.

In July 2007, the State of Wisconsin elected to no longer continue to participate in grant reviews as governed by EO 12372. (See Wisconsin Change of Status letter.)

All Wisconsin applicants for federal funding assistance may now select "program not selected for review" on their federal application form.