OMB Watch Releases New Recovery Act Database

[1]OMB Watch just released a beta version of a new database on FedSpending.org [1] that gives the public improved access to and searchability of Recovery Act recipient report data. The database allows users to search the 160,000 reports from recipients, showing almost $159 billion in spending, which we downloaded from Recovery.gov, a website required by the Recovery Act and maintained by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. OMB Watch created this database in just one month at a relatively small cost.

Our new Recovery Act data tab [1] gives users flexibility to search, either individually or in aggregate, for prime recipients, sub-recipients, ZIP codes, congressional districts, federal awarding agencies, award amounts, and much more through a variety of means, including an Advanced Search [2] function. Additionally, any search results can be downloaded from the site.

We created the Recovery Act data tab [1] to expand the options people have for searching, sorting, and analyzing Recovery Act data. We believe the mapping features on Recovery.gov [3] are great, but there are lots of other ways to interact with this data. We hope our website serves as a springboard for further changes at Recovery.gov [3].

Because the Recovery Act database on FedSpending.org [1] is being released as a beta version, it may contain technical glitches despite our best efforts. That's where you come in - if you have technical difficulties or notice any other bugs, please contact us using the FedSpending.org feedback form [4]. Please note that we did not alter the underlying data in any way, so any errors contained within the data are not our own.

The database is available at http://www.fedspending.org/rcv [1].

(If you don't already know, FedSpending.org [5] is OMB Watch's federal spending tracking website and was launched in October 2006 following passage of a law co-sponsored by Barack Obama and Tom Coburn that mandated a searchable website of government spending; its underlying software serves as the basis for the federal government's website, USAspending.gov [6]. It allows users to search through trillions of dollars' worth of federal spending dating back to FY 2000. If you haven't yet, you should check the rest of the site out too.)