OMB Watch Unveils Recovery Act Recipient Reports Database

On Dec. 3, OMB Watch 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 more than 160,000 reports from recipients of almost $159 billion in Recovery Act contracts, grants, and loans awarded between Feb. 17 and Sept. 30.

FedSpending.org's 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 function. Additionally, any search results can be downloaded from the site.

The Recovery Act created a new model for reporting on how federal funds are spent. Each quarter, recipients, including sub-recipients and vendors, are to report on FederalReporting.gov on how much money they received, how many jobs they created or saved, and other information. This is the first time there has been timely and transparent reporting by recipients of federal funds. It is also the first time that sub-recipients have reported on money passed through states, contractors, and grantees. This new model expands the opportunities for presenting information to the public about government spending.

For example, for the first time, the public can better understand how much of a grant or contract is retained by the prime recipient or given out through sub-awards. To properly illustrate this, OMB Watch created a new data field to indicate how much of a given award a prime recipient or sub-recipient does not pass on to another entity (such as a sub-recipient or vendor). This field, "Net Amount Retained," shows the extent to which Recovery Act funds are passed from the prime recipient to a sub-recipient or a vendor without double-counting funds in the totals for searches. FedSpending.org's Recovery tab includes the "retained" calculation because it can be useful for understanding the actual amount of Recovery Act funding that stays with a certain entity or at a certain location.

Using data published on Recovery.gov [2], the website required by the Recovery Act and maintained by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (the Board), OMB Watch augmented FedSpending.org with the ability to search and sort Recovery Act recipient reports. While the Recovery.gov website contains a modicum of search functionality, the Board's site emphasizes searches by location, with results displayed on a map. FedSpending.org, however, allows users multiple search options (e.g., by recipient name, recipient DUNS number, federal award number, funding agency, and more) and presents the results as a streamlined summary.

By giving users more search options, FedSpending.org can return search results more relevant to a user's request. For example, by entering "University of Texas at Austin" in the "Recipient Name" search field, FedSpending.org returns a simple table of recipients [3] that have names matching the search criteria. In this example, the user would see three "University of Texas at Austin" matches.

A FedSpending.org Recovery database search result

The user can either view information for each match or an aggregation of all three results. Recovery.gov, however, does not easily allow users to search recipient reports by name only, so a search for "University of Texas at Austin" will return all recipient reports if the phrase "University of Texas at Austin" appears anywhere in the report. In this case, 182 matches [4] are found, including a grant to Florida State University [5], because the search term appears in the award's description.

A Recovery.gov recipient report search result

OMB Watch created the Recovery Act recipient reports tab on FedSpending.org not only to give the media, watchdogs, and the general public a tool to understand Recovery Act spending, but also as a example of the kind of functionality Recovery.gov should have. Because the Recovery Act recipient data tab was created in about a month and on a small budget, it has been released as a beta version, and small errors and glitches may be present on the site.