Hi All,Government spending isn't as glamorous a subject as movie stars or the latest scandal on a soap opera. But it is so relevant to our life that it may as well be as important.
After finding out about the website USASpending.gov I knew that I wanted to blog about it.
USASpending.gov is a result of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Users of the site can find the following types of information on USASpending.gov: "All the data on prime recipient transactions is submiyted by the federal agencies making federal contract, grant, loan, and other financial assistance awards. Agencies are required to submit data within 30 days of making the award or after making a modification or amendment to an award. The exception is the Department of Defense which delays its submission by 90 days to protect operations. The data on sub-awards is provided by the prime recipients.
The charts, graphs, and maps display data from October 1, 2008. All data prior to September 30, 2008 can be downloaded. For more information on the data displayed on USAspending.gov, the data sources, and the timing for refreshing the site, go to About the Data.
An example of the information available will make it more interesting and more understandable.
I did a search for 'navy seals' on the site. The results summary lists the total number of transactions, total prime recipient transaction amount, total sub-aware transaction amount, the number of contracts, the number grants, the number of loans and the amount of financial assistance.
Under the topics listed above is a table with the 36 transactions. Clicking on the first one (ACS Cable Systems, LLC) yields contact information and even more information on transactions, total funds awarded and more. Under the search results, users can click on the Award ID to get more information about the transaction details. Also in the table (which can be sorted by various columns) users can find the award amount, award type, awarding agency, funding agency and the role of the recipient.
Finally, note that in the Fall 2017 USASpending.gov will be releasing a new version of the site. The new site will continue to provide data on federal awards as well as include data on agency expenditures. For a preview, go to this link from USASpending.gov.
I hope the site enables you to find out what the government is exactly spending its money on! Hopefully transparency is more than just a catch-phrase - USASpending.gov might help that come to fruition!
Regards,
Stu
