How Reliable is USASpending.gov?
We've taken data from other federal reporting systems and compared it with the data found in USASpending.gov across three categories: Consistency, Completeness and Timeliness. How close are the reported dollar amounts to the yearly estimates? How many of the required fields are filled out in each record? And how long did it take the agency to report the money once it was allocated to a project?
Results SummaryHow does the federal government report its spending?
The flow of federal spending reporting can get complicated. We've tried to simplify it for you with a step-by-step visualization.
Our Metrics
How did we conduct our analysis and what assumptions did we make? What limitations exist with the comparison data we're using? We measured the data across three categories:
- Consistency: A comparison of CFDA obligations and USASpending.gov obligations.
- Completeness: A measure of how many required fields are completed.
- Timeliness: A measure of how quickly obligations were reported.
See our methodology for more information.
Top Programs
The following are some of the top programs that report well across all three metrics:
- Violence Against Women Act Court Training and Improvement Grants
- Special Education Grants for Infants and Families
- Special Education Preschool Grants
- Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program
- Cooperative Forestry Research
- Payments to Agricultural Experiment Stations
- State Senior Environmental Employment Programs
- Even Start
- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
- Civic Education Cooperative Education Exchange Program