On September 26, 2006, President Bush signed into law S. 2590 , the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA; P.L. 109-282 ). According to supporters of the new law, the FFATA was an attempt to reduce "wasteful and unnecessary spending" by the federal government, including spending on funds earmarked for special projects. To that end, the legislation required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to establish a publicly available website that would allow users to search for detailed information about entities that are awarded federal grants, loans, contracts, and other forms of assistance. Using the website, supporters asserted, a citizen or watchdog group would be able to easily determine how much money was given to which organizations, and for what purposes. The premise of the legislation was that, by making the details of federal spending available to the public, government officials would be less likely to fund projects that might be perceived as wasteful. Supporters of the legislation also suggested that the website would give citizens the opportunity to better understand how the government distributes funds, and enable the public to become more involved in the discussion of federal spending priorities. Three of the primary categories of federal expenditures and obligations to be included in the database—federal grants, loans, and contracts—represent a significant element of federal spending. According to the most recently published Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR), federal agencies award over $880 billion in those three categories of financial assistance alone: $470 billion in grants, $381 billion in contracts, and $29 billion in direct loans. OMB launched the database, USAspending.gov, on December 13, 2007. While the new database has been praised as a step toward a worthy objective—enhancing the transparency of government expenditures—government officials and members of the public have expressed concern about the quality of the data it provides, the ability of the database to identify earmarked awards, and the potential cost of enhancing and expanding data collection efforts. This report initially discusses the background of the FFATA. It then discusses the act's provisions, noting what types of assistance are part of the new website, the primary sources of the data, and deadlines for implementation. The report then identifies and discusses issues that have been raised regarding the act that might affect its implementation. Finally, it examines a legislative proposal from the 110 th Congress that would have significantly expanded the information accessible through USAspending.gov. S. 2590 received extensive bipartisan support at each stage of the legislative process. In the Senate, the bill was introduced with bipartisan sponsors, voted unanimously out of committee, and passed by unanimous consent on April 6, 2006. The legislation was ultimately cosponsored by 47 Senators, including then-Majority Leader Bill Frist and then-Minority Leader Harry Reid. In the House, S. 2590 was passed by voice vote on September 13, with members of both parties speaking in support of the Senate bill and none speaking against it. The White House did not issue a Statement of Administrative Policy on S. 2590 , but President Bush did express his support in a press release distributed the same day the bill was enrolled, making it apparent he would sign the measure once he received it. As noted previously, the President signed S. 2590 on September 26, 2006. According to Senator Tom Coburn, the bill's original sponsor, S. 2590 was endorsed by over 150 organizations with a wide range of political leanings. The Senator's list of supporters included representatives of private enterprise, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; unions, like the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; media groups, such as the American Society of Newspaper Editors; and government watchdog organizations, like OMB Watch. As evidence of the unusual alliance in support of S. 2590 , the list indicated that both People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Gun Owners of America supported the bill, as did both the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Traditional Values Coalition. The website required in the act was to be implemented in two phases. By January 1, 2008, the new website was required to provide access to information on entities that were awarded funds directly from the federal government. Entities covered in the first phase of implementation include corporations, associations, partnerships, sole proprietorships, limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, states, and localities. By January 1, 2009, the website was required to include access to information on subgrantees and subcontractors that receive federal funds through a primary award recipient. The act excluded individual recipients of federal assistance, and organizations with less than $300,000 in total income were not required to report on subawards. Consistent with the objective of providing to the public comprehensive information on federal financial assistance, virtually all categories of awards are ultimately to be covered by the database, including grants, contracts, subgrants, subcontracts, and loans. Two special provisions addressed particular types of transactions: individual transactions of less than $25,000 are exempt, and credit card transactions were excluded until October 1, 2008. To achieve greater transparency, the act required the website to provide the following information about each federal award: Name of entity receiving award Amount of award Type of award (e.g., grant, loan, contract) Agency funding award A North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for contracts or a Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number for grants and loans Program source Award title that describes the purpose of the funding Location of recipient City, state, congressional district, and country in which award performance primarily takes place Unique identifier for entity receiving award and of the parent entity of recipient, if one exists Any other information specified by OMB The act required that the website permit users to (1) conduct a search of federal funding by any of the data elements listed above, and (2) determine the total amount of federal funding awarded to an entity by fiscal year. In addition, the act stipulated that the website must provide information in a downloadable format, and that agencies must post new information to the website within 30 days of making an award. Three major financial assistance databases were identified in the act as likely sources of information for the new website—the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), the Federal Assistance Award Data System (FAADS), and Grants.gov. According to the act, a user must be able to access information from these databases directly through the website. The act was explicit on this point: it was not acceptable merely to provide links to these or other databases, because that would force users to search for information at different websites. As previously noted, the act did not require information on subcontractors and subgrantees to be included in the database until January 1, 2009. The delay reflected the fact that information on subrecipients was not collected consistently across federal agencies and programs. To address existing gaps in the data on subawards, the act required OMB to implement a pilot program that tested the feasibility of having primary recipients provide information on their subgrantees and subcontractors. There was a provision in the legislation that allowed federal award recipients and subrecipients to be reimbursed for the costs associated with collecting and reporting data on subrecipients. The act also specified that any requirements for collecting data on subawards made by state and local governments under block and formula grants be cost-effective. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), no unfunded mandate would be placed on recipients or subrecipients for complying with the act. The act also required OMB to submit an annual report to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Government Reform. The report must include data on public usage of the website, an assessment of the reporting burden on federal award and subaward recipients, and an explanation of any extension of the subaward reporting deadline. A database of the breadth and depth contemplated by the FFATA is only as useful as the quality of the information it contains. As noted previously, the act referred to three existing databases as likely sources of information for the new public database: FAADS, FPDS-NG, and Grants.gov. USAspending.gov draws extensively from FAADS and FPDS-NG, but it is unclear whether data from Grants.gov is also incorporated. A number of observers have expressed concern about relying on information from FAADS and FPDS-NG. Both government officials and knowledgeable members of the public describe significant weaknesses in the databases—such as incomplete and inaccurate information—that cannot be quickly corrected. These observers suggest that substantial changes in the collection, reporting, and verification of information relating to federal assistance awards would likely be necessary before FAADS and FPDS-NG might be considered reliable sources of information. In a 2005 report, GAO noted that FPDS-NG users lacked confidence in the data provided, largely because there was no rigorous system in place to ensure the data were accurate and complete. In 2006, a panel of procurement experts attempted to use FPDS-NG in their evaluation of federal contracting operations, but reportedly found so many errors in the data that the chairman declared that "FPDS-NG is not a reliable database." One reason the data are inaccurate is human error; contract information might be incorrectly entered into FPDS-NG by inexperienced users who have received minimal training. Moreover, agencies might vary in the degree to which they fill out the fields in the database, resulting in data of uneven quality. In one instance, FPDS-NG users reportedly complained that the database failed to consistently identify contracts related to Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts that were awarded without competition. The problem has not been fixed, and gaps in FPDS-NG data are now evident in USAspending.gov.