Updated April 26, 2019
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,
ï‚· 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
ï‚·
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.
ï‚· 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
ï‚·
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
download pages—Custom Award Data and Custom
ï‚· Advanced Award Search of prime and subaward data
Account Data (which covers all spending data, including
back to FY2008 allows filtering by award type,
non-award spending)—also allow downloading of large
awarding agency, recipient, country, state, zip, county,
data sets but provide additional filtering options.
CD, and other criteria. To identify where money is being
spent, search on Place of Performance versus Recipient
Key Challenges in Tracking Awards
Location. Search results include awards that are active
Key challenges may be usefully considered in two general
during the selected fiscal year, regardless of when the
categories: (1) reporting issues and (2) pass-through issues.
award initially started. Details on an individual award,
In addition, tracking awards in CDs presents several
including transaction history and subawards, may be
specific issues that are addressed separately below.
viewed by clicking on the Award ID. The results list
displayed can be downloaded at either the award or
Reporting Issues
transaction level, along with additional details about
Federal agencies are required to submit reports on awards
each award, into a spreadsheet. The advanced search is
transactions within 30 days after they are implemented.
currently being developed and improved on a rolling
There may be a longer lag-time with data from the
basis, so new features may have become available since
Department of Defense, generally 90 days. Although this
the publication of this report.
reporting requirement is in place, issues still remain
ï‚·
involving of the data’s completeness, consistency, and
Spending Explorer enables “big picture” browsing of
accuracy (see “Background on USAspending.gov”).
federal spending obligations and offers interactive data
visualization by budget function, agency, and object
class. With this tool, users can see the budget function
https://crsreports.congress.gov

---

link to page 2 link to page 2
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
Pass-Through Issues
grants, then to local jurisdictions, including different
Most federal grants funding is awarded to states, which then
CDs) before they are actually spent. Therefore,
pass through funds to eligible recipients elsewhere in the
searching on Place of Performance rather than Recipient
state. Funds may then be further subawarded or
Location will yield results that more accurately reflect
subcontracted (see Figure 1). This sublevel location may be
ultimate award destinations.
a project’s place of performance as opposed to the initial
recipient location. Consider the following pass-through
Background on USAspending.gov
scenarios:
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
ï‚·
of 2006 (FFATA; P.L. 109-282) required the Office of
A grant award may pass through different jurisdictions
Management and Budget (OMB) to create a public database
in a state (located in different CDs) before reaching the
to enable tracking of federal funds awarded to the final
final place of performance.
recipient level. This can be challenging because federal
ï‚· Federal grant monies may first go to the state (an agency funding that is awarded to states or contractors may then be
or agencies in the state capital in one or more CDs), then
passed through or subawarded to local entities or
be distributed to a city or county government (in one or
subcontractors (see Figure 1).
more additional CDs), which then may subaward funds
to an organization that spends the money in other CDs.
In addition, because of continued data quality issues in
ï‚·
USAspending.gov, information in the database may still be
Procurement awards may be given to a corporation
incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading (for example, see
headquartered in one state (and one CD). The company
Government Accountability Office Report GAO-14-476 on
may spend the money manufacturing the purchased
data transparency, available at http://www.gao.gov/assets/
product at one or more of its manufacturing facilities in
670/664536.pdf).
one or more additional states (and CDs).
Figure 1.Examples of Federal Spending Streams
Under requirements of P.L. 113-101, the Digital
Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act),
Recipients at Multiple Levels
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
website’s About page at https://www.usaspending.gov/#/
about and Frequently Asked Questions at
Source: Jerry Brito, George Washington Univ., 2009; and CRS 2016.
https://usaspending-help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/
115000739433-Frequently-Ask-Questions-.
Specific Challenges in Tracking Awards by
Congressional District
Congressional staffers who need help searching
Congressional offices should be aware that information in
USAspending.gov may place a request via CRS.gov.
USAspending.gov may be incomplete, inaccurate, or
misleading. When searching for CD data, note the
Related CRS Products
following:
CRS Report R44027, Tracking Federal Awards:
ï‚· Special care should be taken when comparing CD data
USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer
over time. Because of the redistricting process, the
Teefy
geographic area within the boundaries of a CD in the
113th and later Congresses may be partially or wholly
CRS Report R44374, Federal Grant Financial Reporting
different from the geographic area of a CD with the
Requirements and Databases: Frequently Asked Questions,
same number in the 112th and earlier Congresses. Other
by Natalie Keegan
geographic search options, such as by zip code or
county, could be used to track awards within a CD,

although borders may not exactly align.
ï‚·

CDs that include state capitals may sometimes appear to
receive more federal awards because state administering
Jennifer Teefy, Senior Research Librarian
agencies (SAAs) pass through funds for projects
throughout the state.
IF10231
ï‚· Federal grant or procurement funds may pass through
various administrative levels (e.g., to states via block

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.

https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10231 · VERSION 10 · UPDATED

---