Updated April 26, 2022
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts
Using USAspending.gov
Overview
are active during the selected fiscal year, regardless of
USAspending.gov, available to the public at
when the award initially started. Details on an individual
http://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for
award, including transaction history and subawards,
data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD),
may be viewed by clicking on the Award ID. The results
zip code, city, and county. The awards data in
list displayed can be downloaded at either the award or
USAspending.gov is provided by federal agencies and
transaction level, along with additional details about
represents grants, contracts, loans, and other financial
each award, into a spreadsheet. The advanced search is
assistance. Grant awards include money the federal
continually being developed and improved, so new
government commits for projects in states, local
features may have become available since the
jurisdictions, regions, territories, and tribal reservations, as
publication of this report.
well as payments for eligible needs to help individuals and
Spending Explorer enables “big picture” browsing of
families. Contract awards refer to bids and agreements the
federal spending obligations and offers interactive data
federal government makes for specific goods and services.
visualization by budget function, agency, and object
USAspending.gov does not include data on actual spending
class. With this tool, users can see the budget function
by recipients.
breakdown by categories such as Social Security,
Medicare, and national defense; obligated amounts by
USAspending.gov also provides tools for examining the
agency; and obligations by object class categories such
broader picture of federal spending obligations within the
as grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and
categories of budget function, agency, and object class.
benefits.
Budget function refers to the major purpose that the
spending serves, such as Social Security, Medicare, and
Profiles of Agencies and Federal Accounts feature data
on each agency’
national defense. Object class refers to the type of item or
s budgetary resources, a dollar amount
service purchased by the federal government, such as
that has been obligated (or committed to be spent)
grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and benefits.
against those budgetary resources, and the amount the
agency has obligated for awards. Users can also browse
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred multiple pieces of
a list of more than 2,000 federal accounts and track
legislation providing relief to individuals and families, state
spending obligations within each. The data in this
and local governments, businesses, and healthcare
section is presented visually through interactive charts.
providers. USAspending.gov provides access to data on
Profiles of States provides tables, interactive maps, and
COVID-19 funding through visual displays and specific
graphs showing a breakdown of a total awarded amount
search filters. See CRS Report R46491, Resources for
to each state back to FY2008. Breakdowns include totals
Tracking Federal COVID-19 Spending, for more
by award type, county, and CD. Profiles also include top
information.
five rankings in various categories, such as awarding
agencies and recipients.
Additional search filters to enable tracking awards made
through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L.
Profiles of Recipients contains information on entities
117-58) have also been added to USAspending.gov.
that have received federal awards in the form of
contracts, grants, loans, or other financial assistance
Using USAspending.gov to locate and compile accurate
back to FY2008. Recipient profiles include data on
data on federal awards presents challenges, in part, because
award trends over time and top five rankings in various
of continued data quality issues that have been identified by
categories.
the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Download Center allows bulk exporting of large,
Researchers need to be aware that search results may be
pregenerated award data sets by agency, award type, and
incomplete or contain inaccuracies.
fiscal year through the Award Data Archive. The custom
download pages—Custom Award Data and Custom
USAspending.gov includes the following features:
Account Data (which covers all spending data, including
nonaward spending)—also allow downloading of large
Advanced Award Search of prime and subaward data
data sets but provide additional filtering options.
back to FY2008 allows filtering by award type,
awarding agency, recipient, country, state, zip, city,
Key Challenges in Tracking Awards
county, CD, and other criteria. To identify where money
Key challenges may be usefully considered in two general
is being spent, search on Place of Performance versus
categories: (1) reporting issues and (2) pass-through issues.
Recipient Location. Search results include awards that
https://crsreports.congress.gov
link to page 2 link to page 2 
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
In addition, tracking awards in CDs presents several
county, could be used to track awards within a CD,
specific issues that are addressed separately below.
although borders may not exactly align.
Reporting Issues
CDs that include state capitals may sometimes appear to
receive more federal awards because state administering
Federal agencies are required to submit reports on awards
agencies (SAAs) pass through funds for projects
transactions within 30 days after they are implemented.
throughout the state.
There may be a longer lag-time with data from the
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,
searching on Place of Performance rather than Recipient
Pass-Through Issues
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
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
a project’s place of performance as opposed to the initial
of 2006 (FFATA; P.L. 109-282) required the Office of
recipient location. Consider the following pass-through
Management and Budget (OMB) to create a public database
scenarios:
to enable tracking of federal funds awarded to the final
recipient level. This can be challenging because federal
A grant award may pass through different jurisdictions
funding that is awarded to states or contractors may then be
in a state (located in different CDs) before reaching the
passed through or subawarded to local entities or
final place of performance.
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-22-104127 on data
quality, available at https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-
Procurement awards may be given to a corporation
104702).
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
Figure 1. Examples of Federal Spending Streams
the Treasury. The act required Treasury and OMB to set
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-.
Source: Jerry Brito, George Washington Univ., 2009; and CRS,
Related CRS Products
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
Jennifer Teefy, Senior Research Librarian
geographic search options, such as by zip code or
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
IF10231
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 17 · UPDATED