About Federal Spending Transparency

In May 2014, President Obama signed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) (P.L. 113-101) into law. Once implemented, the DATA Act will make federal spending data more accessible, searchable, and reliable. It will not only make it easier to understand how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars but will also serve as a tool for better oversight, data-centric decision-making, and innovation both inside and outside of government. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget are leading the government-wide implementation of the DATA Act.

This collaboration space is designed to openly share our process for meeting the new data transparency requirements of the DATA Act. Our sister site — Beta.USAspending.gov — is where you will find the results of this work: data you can search, view, and download. We invite you - the public - to interact with our site and share your feedback and questions on our Community Page!

Get Involved

Visit the Get Involved page to find out how to comment or participate in different aspects of this project.

Our Workstreams and Where to Find Them

Data In

Data Submission: Getting data uploaded to USAspending.gov is a multi-step process that includes validation to ensure quality, and transmission to the cloud. Agencies will need to package data in a specified format for both these tasks.

If you are a federal agency employee, click here to learn about the format specifications and how our data broker will enable you to validate and submit data.

Data Out

Beta.USAspending.gov: This public beta site, in accordance with the DATA Act, is the new official source of accessible, searchable and reliable spending data for the U.S. government. This site runs concurrently with the existing version of the USAspending.gov website and will be expanded and improved over the summer to add functionality and features based on user feedback.

USAspending.gov: This public website launched in 2007 and features robust access to federal spending data mandated by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

Data Model

The new version of USAspending.gov will rely on hundreds of distinct data elements to tell the story of how federal dollars are spent. The DATA Act Information Model Schema organizes these elements into a structure that further defines, groups, and relates them to each other. Learn about the elements.

User-Centered Design

User research, testing, and design iteration will support all parts of the DATA Act implementation. Learn about our user-centered process here.