Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
Updated December 14, 2023
Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts
Using USAspending.gov
Overview
Location. Search results include awards that are active
USAspending.gov, available to the public at
during the selected fiscal year, regardless of when the
http://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for
award initially started. Users can opt to limit searches to
data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD),
new awards only. Details on an individual award,
zip code, city, and county. The awards data in
including transaction history and subawards, may be
USAspending.gov is provided by federal agencies and
viewed by clicking on the Award ID. The results list
represents grants, contracts, loans, and other financial
displayed can be downloaded at either the award or
assistance. Grant awards include money the federal
transaction level, along with additional details about
government commits for projects in states, local
each award, into a spreadsheet. The award search is
jurisdictions, regions, territories, and tribal reservations, as
continually being developed and improved, so new
well as payments for eligible needs to help individuals and
features may have become available since the
families. Contract awards refer to bids and agreements the
publication of this report.
federal government makes for specific goods and services.
• Spending Explorer enables “big picture” browsing of
Award funding data include both obligations (money
federal spending obligations and offers interactive data
committed to be spent) and outlays (money actually paid
visualization by budget function, agency, and object
out).
class. With this tool, users can see the budget function
breakdown by categories such as Social Security,
USAspending.gov also provides tools for examining the
Medicare, and national defense; obligated amounts by
broader picture of federal spending obligations within the
agency; and obligations by object class categories such
categories of budget function, agency, and object class.
as grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and
Budget function refers to the major purpose that the
benefits.
spending serves, such as Social Security, Medicare, and
•
national defense. Object class refers to the type of item or
Profiles of Agencies and Federal Accounts feature data
on each agency’
service purchased by the federal government, such as
s budgetary resources, dollar amounts
grants, contracts, and personnel compensation and benefits.
that have been obligated and outlaid against those
budgetary resources, and amounts the agency has
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred multiple pieces of
obligated for awards. Users can also browse a list of
legislation providing relief to individuals and families, state
more than 2,000 federal accounts and track spending
and local governments, businesses, and health care
obligations and outlays within each. The data in this
providers. USAspending.gov provides access to data on
section is presented visually through interactive charts.
COVID-19 funding through visual displays and specific
• Profiles of States and Territories provides tables,
search filters. See CRS Report R46491, Resources for
interactive maps, and graphs showing a breakdown of a
Tracking Federal COVID-19 Spending, for more
total awarded amount to each state and territory back to
information.
FY2008. Breakdowns include totals by award type,
county, and CD. Profiles also include top five rankings
Additional search filters to enable tracking awards made
in various categories, such as awarding agencies and
through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L.
recipients.
117-58) have also been added to USAspending.gov.
• 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.
• Data Download allows bulk exporting of large, award
datasets by agency, award type, and fiscal year through
USAspending.gov includes the following features:
the Award Data Archive. The custom download pages—
Custom Award Data and Custom Account Data (which
• Award Search of prime and subaward data back to
covers all spending data, including nonaward
FY2008 allows filtering by award type, awarding
spending)—also allow downloading of large datasets
agency, recipient, country, state, zip, city, county, CD,
but provide additional filtering options.
and other criteria. To identify where money is being
spent, search on Place of Performance versus Recipient
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Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional Districts Using USAspending.gov
Key Challenges in Tracking Awards
within either “original” (pre-2023) CD boundaries or
“
Key challenges may be usefully considered in two general
current” (2023-onward) CD boundaries. Searching
categories: (1) reporting issues and (2) pass-through issues.
current CD boundaries will enable capturing historical
In addition, tracking awards in CDs presents several
award data within current district borders.
specific issues that are addressed separately below.
• CDs that include state capitals may sometimes appear to
receive more federal awards because state administering
Reporting Issues
agencies (SAAs) pass through funds for projects
Federal agencies are required to submit reports on awards
throughout the state.
transactions within 30 days after they are implemented.
•
There may be a longer lag-time with data from the
Federal grant or procurement funds may pass through
Department of Defense, generally 90 days. Although this
various administrative levels (e.g., to states via block
reporting requirement is in place, issues still remain
grants, then to local jurisdictions, including different
involving of the data’s completeness, consistency, and
CDs) before they are actually spent. Therefore,
accuracy (see “Background on USAspending.gov”).
searching on Place of Performance rather than Recipient
Location will yield results that more accurately reflect
Pass-Through Issues
ultimate award destinations.
Most federal grants funding is awarded to states, which then
pass through funds to eligible recipients elsewhere in the
Background on USAspending.gov
state. Funds may then be further subawarded or
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
subcontracted (see Figure 1). This sublevel location may be
of 2006 (FFATA; P.L. 109-282) required the Office of
a project’s place of performance as opposed to the initial
Management and Budget (OMB) to create a public database
recipient location. Consider the following pass-through
to enable tracking of federal funds awarded at the final
scenarios:
recipient level. Under requirements of P.L. 113-101, the
Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014
• A grant award may pass through different jurisdictions
(DATA Act), responsibility for the database passed to the
in a state (located in different CDs) before reaching the
Department of the Treasury. The act required Treasury and
final place of performance.
OMB to set uniform data standards to be used across all
•
federal agencies and provide additional guidance to
Federal grant monies may first go to the state (an agency
agencies for posting data on USAspending.gov.
or agencies in the state capital in one or more CDs), then
be distributed to a city or county government (in one or
Tracking federal funding to final recipients can be
more additional CDs), which then may subaward funds
challenging because funding that is awarded to states or
to an organization that spends the money in other CDs.
contractors may then be passed through or subawarded to
• Procurement awards may be given to a corporation
local entities or subcontractors (see Figure 1).
headquartered in one state (and one CD). The company
may spend the money manufacturing the purchased
Additionally, because of continuing data quality issues in
product at one or more of its manufacturing facilities in
USAspending.gov, information in the database may still be
one or more additional states (and CDs).
incomplete and inaccurate (e.g., see Government
Accountability Office report GAO-24-106214 on data
Figure 1. Examples of Federal Spending Streams
quality, available at https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-
Recipients at Multiple Levels
106214).
For more information on USAspending.gov, see the
website’s About page at https://www.usaspending.gov/data-
sources.
Related CRS Products
CRS Report R44027, Tracking Federal Awards:
USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer
Teefy.
CRS Report R44374, Federal Grant Financial Reporting
Source: Jerry Brito, George Washington Univ., 2009; and CRS,
Requirements and Databases: Frequently Asked Questions,
2016.
by Natalie Keegan.
Specific Challenges in Tracking Awards by
Congressional District
Jennifer Teefy, Senior Research Librarian
When searching for CD data, note the following:
IF10231
• CD borders can change significantly with decennial
redistricting. There are options to search for awards
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
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