FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2007
Contact: OMB Communications, 202-395-7254
USASpending.Gov Puts Federal Spending at Public’s Fingertips
Newest OMB Website Further Increases Government Transparency
Washington, DC — Today the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) launched USASpending.gov, a site dedicated to providing increased transparency for information on government’s contracts, grants, and loans.
In September 2006, Congress enacted and the President signed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (the Transparency Act), co-sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn, Barack Obama, John McCain, and Tom Carper, as well as Representatives Roy Blunt and Tom Davis, which required a website reporting detailed information on all government transactions that exceed $25,000.
USASpending.gov is being launched early, before the January 1, 2008, statutory deadline, to encourage public suggestions for improving the site. At launch, the site will provide the most comprehensive source of transaction data, and allow users to search by entity name and location, award amount and type, and several other criteria.
“With USAspending.gov, information on how taxpayers’ hard-earned money is being spent in Washington will just be a mouse-click away. This sort of transparency breeds accountability among those entrusted with spending the public’s money,” said Jim Nussle, OMB Director. “Even though this new site is chock full of data, it remains a work in progress. We’ll continue to work with agencies, Congress and the public to make improvements that ensure the site is as user-friendly as possible and that data uploads are timely and accurate.”
To date, OMB has received data from 21 of the 24 Federal agencies subject to key congressional financial management improvement standards, and new agency data will be posted to the site every two weeks. These 21 agencies comprise approximately 90 percent of government spending, and OMB will continue to work with agencies to hone and improve data collection and integrity.
By January 1, 2008, each agency is required to submit plans outlining gaps in required data and plans to fill these gaps. Measures are also being taken to validate recipient contact information and to allow agencies to post their confidence in the quality of identifying data they received from grant, loan, and contract recipients.
USASpending.gov is another important milestone in the government’s commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and results. Under the leadership of President Bush, OMB has made great strides in providing easier access to information on Federal spending and program performance, by placing detailed budget materials and justifications online and through initiatives like ExpectMore.gov for results on federal programs, Results.gov for federal agency scorecards, and earmarks.omb.gov for a searchable database of earmarks.###
