The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) was signed into law on September 26, 2006. The legislation required that federal contract, grant, loan, and other financial assistance awards of more than $25,000 be displayed on a searchable, publicly accessible website, USAspending.gov, to give the American public access to information on how their tax dollars are being spent. As a matter of discretion, USAspending.gov also displays certain federal contracts of more than $3,000. The initial site went live in 2007.
Federal agencies are required to report the name of the entity receiving the award, the amount of the award, the recipient’s location, the place of performance location, as well as other information. In 2008, FFATA was amended by the Government Funding Transparency Act to require prime recipients to report details on their first-tier sub-recipients for awards made as of October 1, 2010.
In February 2014, the Office of Management and Budget designated the Department of Treasury responsible for operating and supporting USAspending.gov. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is administering this responsibility on behalf of Treasury. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service relaunched USAspending.gov in March 2015 with improvements to the site’s usability, presentation, and search, including a re-organization of how the data is presented. For example, the major data components are the Spending Map, the Agency Profiles, and the State/Territory Summaries. For more information on these components, see What You Can Do On The Site.
Read the full legislation. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
Read the Amendment. Government Funding and Transparency Act
OpenBeta.usaspending.gov. In May 2017, Treasury will launch the next generation of USAspending.gov that will include expanded data required by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. We've launched OpenBeta.usaspending.gov to test features and functionalities that might be part of the new USAspending.gov. We need your feedback about those features so when the updated site goes live it will have the answers to your questions federal spending. Visit OpenBeta.usaspending.gov and tell us what you think.
Policy & Guidance
The Office of Management and Budget frequently publishes guidance to federal agencies on the implementation of FFATA and the DATA Act.
Increasing Transparency of Federal Spending by Making Federal Spending Data Accessible, Searchable, and Reliable
Guidance on FFATA Subaward and Executive Compensation Reporting