For those of you who haven't been to the BudgetBlog before or have, but are still sleepy this morning, you might not notice that the government's website looks an awful lot like FedSpending.org, the site we launched in October, 2006. Well, that's because it basically is FedSpending.org, with a few design changes. As the Washington Post reported this morning, OMB Watch licensed FedSpending.org to OMB for use in compliance with the law (btw, the article is a great insight into the collaboration we've had with OMB over the past year). We will continue to operate FedSpending.org and add more advanced features that make the site easier to use and the data easier to understand. And we hope with a solid foundation, OMB will be able to make timely and eventually more accurate data available to the public through USASpending.gov.

Currently, there are difference between the sites. For instance, OMB will have more timely data as they plan to update the site every two weeks with new data (we currently update data twice a year). In addition, the government site does not have features and upgrades added to FedSpending.org in our last version release, including a mapping feature on all searches, creation of a streamlined and powerful SuperSearch for all advanced searching needs, and increased flexibility in getting data more quickly through expandable summary views.

I have been continually surprised and proud of the success of our endevor to make Federal spending information more available and understandable to the public through FedSpending.org. For it to now be the model for the government's efforts to do the same is feels even better.