Updated May 11, 2020
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts
Using USAspending.gov
Overview
transaction level, along with additional details about
USAspending.gov, available to the public at
each award, into a spreadsheet. The advanced search is
http://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for
continually being developed and improved, so new
data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD),
features may have become available since the
zip code, city, and county. The awards data in
publication of this report.
USAspending.gov is provided by federal agencies and
Spending Explorer enables “big picture” browsing of
represents grants, contracts, loans, and other financial
federal spending obligations and offers interactive data
assistance. Grant awards include money the federal
visualization by budget function, agency, and object
government commits for projects in states, local
class. With this tool, users can see the budget function
jurisdictions, regions, territories, and tribal reservations, as
breakdown by categories such as Social Security,
well as payments for eligible needs to help individuals and
Medicare, and national defense; obligated amounts by
families. Contract awards refer to bids and agreements the
agency; and obligations by object class categories such
federal government makes for specific goods and services.
as grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and
USAspending.gov does not include data on actual spending
benefits.
by recipients.
Profiles of Agencies and Federal Accounts features
USAspending.gov also provides tools for examining the
data on each agency’s budgetary resources, a dollar
broader picture of federal spending obligations within the
amount that has been obligated (or committed to be
categories of budget function, agency, and object class.
spent) against those budgetary resources, a breakdown
Budget function refers to the major purpose that the
of these obligations by object class, and the federal
spending serves, such as Social Security, Medicare, and
accounts through which the obligations are
national defense. Object class refers to the type of item or
administered. Users can also browse a list of the nearly
service purchased by the federal government, such as
2,000 federal accounts and track spending obligations
grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and benefits.
within each. The data in this section is presented
visually through interactive charts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred multiple pieces of
Profiles of States provides tables, interactive maps, and
legislation providing relief to individuals and families, state
graphs showing a breakdown of a total awarded amount
and local governments, businesses, and healthcare
to each state back to FY2008. Breakdowns include totals
providers. According to an Office of Management and
by award type, county, and CD. Profiles also include top
Budget memorandum, there are plans to identify COVID-
five rankings in various categories, such as awarding
19-related federal awards in USAspending.gov effective for
agencies and recipients.
the June 2020 reporting period.
Profiles of Recipients contains information on entities
Using USAspending.gov to locate and compile accurate
that have received federal awards in the form of
data on federal awards presents challenges, in part, because
contracts, grants, loans, or other financial assistance
of continued data quality issues that have been identified by
back to FY2008. Recipient profiles include data on
the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
award trends over time and top five rankings in various
Researchers need to be aware that search results may be
categories.
incomplete or contain inaccuracies.
Download Center allows bulk exporting of large,
pregenerated 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
Advanced Award Search of prime and subaward data
Account Data (which covers all spending data, including
back to FY2008 allows filtering by award type,
nonaward spending)—also allow downloading of large
awarding agency, recipient, country, state, zip, city,
data sets but provide additional filtering options.
county, CD, and other criteria. To identify where money
is being spent, search on Place of Performance versus
Key Challenges in Tracking Awards
Recipient Location. Search results include awards that
Key challenges may be usefully considered in two general
are active during the selected fiscal year, regardless of
categories: (1) reporting issues and (2) pass-through issues.
when the award initially started. Details on an individual
In addition, tracking awards in CDs presents several
award, including transaction history and subawards,
specific issues that are addressed separately below.
may be viewed by clicking on the Award ID. The results
list displayed can be downloaded at either the award or
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Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
Reporting Issues
CDs that include state capitals may sometimes appear to
Federal agencies are required to submit reports on awards
receive more federal awards because state administering
transactions within 30 days after they are implemented.
agencies (SAAs) pass through funds for projects
There may be a longer lag-time with data from the
throughout the state.
Department of Defense, generally 90 days. Although this
Federal grant or procurement funds may pass through
reporting requirement is in place, issues still remain
various administrative levels (e.g., to states via block
involving of the data’s completeness, consistency, and
grants, then to local jurisdictions, including different
accuracy (see “Background on USAspending.gov”).
CDs) before they are actually spent. Therefore,
Pass-Through Issues
searching on Place of Performance rather than Recipient
Location will yield results that more accurately reflect
Most federal grants funding is awarded to states, which then
ultimate award destinations.
pass through funds to eligible recipients elsewhere in the
state. Funds may then be further subawarded or
Background on USAspending.gov
subcontracted (see Figure 1). This sublevel location may be
a project’s place of performance as opposed to the initial
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
recipient location. Consider the following pass-through
of 2006 (FFATA; P.L. 109-282) required the Office of
scenarios:
Management and Budget (OMB) to create a public database
to enable tracking of federal funds awarded to the final
A grant award may pass through different jurisdictions
recipient level. This can be challenging because federal
in a state (located in different CDs) before reaching the
funding that is awarded to states or contractors may then be
final place of performance.
passed through or subawarded to local entities or
subcontractors (see Figure 1).
Federal grant monies may first go to the state (an agency
or agencies in the state capital in one or more CDs), then
In addition, because of continued data quality issues in
be distributed to a city or county government (in one or
USAspending.gov, information in the database may still be
more additional CDs), which then may subaward funds
incomplete and inaccurate (for example, see Government
to an organization that spends the money in other CDs.
Accountability Office report GAO-20-75 on data quality,
Procurement awards may be given to a corporation
available at https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-75).
headquartered in one state (and one CD). The company
may spend the money manufacturing the purchased
Under requirements of P.L. 113-101, the Digital
product at one or more of its manufacturing facilities in
Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act),
one or more additional states (and CDs).
responsibility for the database passed to the Department of
the Treasury. The act required Treasury and OMB to set
Figure 1. Examples of Federal Spending Streams
uniform data standards to be used across all federal
Recipients at Multiple Levels
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
https://usaspending-help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/
115000739433-Frequently-Ask-Questions-.
Related CRS Products
Source: Jerry Brito, George Washington Univ., 2009; and CRS 2016.
CRS Report R44027, Tracking Federal Awards:
Specific Challenges in Tracking Awards by
USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer
Congressional District
Teefy.
When searching for CD data, note the following:
CRS Report R44374, Federal Grant Financial Reporting
Special care should be taken when comparing CD data
Requirements and Databases: Frequently Asked Questions,
over time. Because of the redistricting process, the
by Natalie Keegan.
geographic area within the boundaries of a CD in the
113th and later Congresses may be partially or wholly
different from the geographic area of a CD with the
same number in the 112th and earlier Congresses. Other
geographic search options, such as by zip code or
county, could be used to track awards within a CD,
Jennifer Teefy, Senior Research Librarian
although borders may not exactly align.
IF10231
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
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