Updated October 23, 2018
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts
Using USAspending.gov
Overview
breakdown by categories such as Social Security,
USAspending.gov, available to the public at
Medicare, and national defense; obligated amounts by
http://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for
agency; and obligations by object class categories such
data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD),
as grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and
zip code, and county. The awards data in USAspending.gov
benefits.
is provided by federal agencies and represents grants,
Profiles of Agencies and Federal Accounts features
contracts, loans, and other financial assistance. Grant
data on each agency’s budgetary resources, a dollar
awards include money the federal government commits for
amount that has been obligated (or committed to be
projects in states, local jurisdictions, regions, territories, and
spent) against those budgetary resources, a breakdown
tribal reservations, as well as payments for eligible needs to
of these obligations by object class, and the federal
help individuals and families. Contract awards refer to bids
accounts through which the obligations are
and agreements the federal government makes for specific
administered. Users can also browse a list of the more
goods and services. USAspending.gov does not include
than 2,000 federal accounts and track spending
data on actual spending by recipients.
obligations within each. The data in this section is
presented visually through interactive charts.
USAspending.gov also provides tools for examining the
broader picture of federal spending obligations by
Profiles of States provides tables, interactive maps, and
categories such as budget function, agency, and object
graphs showing a breakdown of a total awarded amount
class. Budget function refers to the major purpose that the
to each state back to FY2008. Breakdowns include totals
spending serves, such as Social Security, Medicare, and
by award type, county, and CD. Profiles also include top
national defense. Object class refers to the type of item or
five rankings in various categories, such as awarding
service purchased by the federal government, such as
agencies and recipients.
grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and benefits.
Profiles of Recipients contains information on entities
that have received federal awards in the form of
Using USAspending.gov to locate and compile accurate
contracts, grants, loans, or other financial assistance
data on federal awards presents challenges, in part, because
back to FY2008. Recipient profiles include data on
of continued data quality issues that have been identified by
award trends over time and top five rankings in various
the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
categories.
Researchers need to be aware that search results may be
incomplete or contain inaccuracies.
Download Center allows bulk exporting of large, pre-
generated award data sets by agency, award type, and
USAspending.gov includes the following features:
fiscal year through the Award Data Archive. The
Custom Award Data page also allows downloading of
Advanced Award Search of prime and subaward data
large sets but provides additional filtering options.
back to FY2008 allows filtering by award type,
awarding agency, recipient, country, state, zip, county,
Key Challenges in Tracking Awards
CD, and other criteria. To identify where money is being
Key challenges may be usefully considered in two general
spent, search on Place of Performance versus Recipient
categories: (1) reporting issues and (2) pass-through issues.
Location. Search results include awards that are active
In addition, tracking awards in CDs presents several
during the selected fiscal year, regardless of when the
specific issues that are addressed separately below.
award initially started. Details on an individual award,
including transaction history and subawards, may be
Reporting Issues
viewed by clicking on the Award ID. The results list
Federal agencies are required to submit reports on awards
displayed can be downloaded at either the award or
transactions within 30 days after they are implemented.
transaction level, along with additional details about
There may be a longer lag-time with data from the
each award, into a spreadsheet. The advanced search is
Department of Defense, generally 90 days. Although this
currently being developed and improved on a rolling
reporting requirement is in place, issues still remain
basis, so new features may have become available since
involving of the data’s completeness, consistency, and
the publication of this report.
accuracy (see “Background on USAspending.gov”).
Spending Explorer enables “big picture” browsing of
Pass-Through Issues
federal spending obligations and offers interactive data
Most federal grants funding is awarded to states, which then
visualization by budget function, agency, and object
pass through funds to eligible recipients elsewhere in the
class. With this tool, users can see the budget function
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Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
state. Funds may then be further subawarded or
CDs) before they are actually spent. Therefore,
subcontracted (see Figure 1). This sublevel location may be
searching on Place of Performance rather than Recipient
a project’s place of performance as opposed to the initial
Location will yield results that more accurately reflect
recipient location. Consider the following pass-through
ultimate award destinations.
scenarios:
Background on USAspending.gov
A grant award may pass through different jurisdictions
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
in a state (located in different CDs) before reaching the
of 2006 (FFATA; P.L. 109-282) required the Office of
final place of performance.
Management and Budget (OMB) to create a public database
Federal grant monies may first go to the state (an agency to enable tracking of federal funds awarded to the final
or agencies in the state capital in one or more CDs), then
recipient level. This can be challenging because federal
be distributed to a city or county government (in one or
funding that is awarded to states or contractors may then be
more additional CDs), which then may subaward funds
passed through or subawarded to local entities or
to an organization that spends the money in other CDs.
subcontractors (see Figure 1).
Procurement awards may be given to a corporation
In addition, because of continued data quality issues in
headquartered in one state (and one CD). The company
USAspending.gov, information in the database may still be
may spend the money manufacturing the purchased
incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading (for example, see
product at one or more of its manufacturing facilities in
Government Accountability Office Report GAO-14-476 on
one or more additional states (and CDs).
data transparency, available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/
Figure 1.Examples of Federal Spending Streams
670/664536.pdf).
Recipients at Multiple Levels
Under requirements of P.L. 113-101, the Digital
Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act),
responsibility for the database passed to the Department of
the Treasury. The act required Treasury and OMB to set
uniform data standards to be used across all federal
agencies and provide additional guidance to agencies for
posting data on USAspending.gov.
Treasury launched the current version of the website in
March 2018.
For more information on USAspending.gov, see the
Source: Jerry Brito, George Washington Univ., 2009; and CRS 2016.
website’s About page at https://www.usaspending.gov/#/
about and Frequently Asked Questions at
Specific Challenges in Tracking Awards by
https://usaspending-help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/
Congressional District
115000739433-Frequently-Ask-Questions-.
Congressional offices should be aware that information in
USAspending.gov may be incomplete, inaccurate, or
Congressional staffers who need help searching
misleading. When searching for CD data, note the
USAspending.gov may place a request via CRS.gov.
following:
Related CRS Products
Special care should be taken when comparing CD data
over time. Because of the redistricting process, the
CRS Report R44027, Tracking Federal Awards:
geographic area within the boundaries of a CD in the
USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer
113th and later Congresses may be partially or wholly
Teefy
different from the geographic area of a CD with the
same number in the 112th and earlier Congresses. Other
CRS Report R44374, Federal Grant Financial Reporting
geographic search options, such as by zip code or
Requirements and Databases: Frequently Asked Questions,
county, could be used to track awards within a CD,
by Natalie Keegan
although borders may not exactly align.
CDs that include state capitals may sometimes appear to
receive more federal awards because state administering
agencies (SAAs) pass through funds for projects
throughout the state.
Jennifer Teefy, Senior Research Librarian
Federal grant or procurement funds may pass through
IF10231
various administrative levels (e.g., to states via block
grants, then to local jurisdictions, including different
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to
congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress.
Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has
been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the
United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be
reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include
copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you
wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
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