Canonical site for tracking US government spending

[Brandon Downey]

As some of you may be aware, last year the "Federal Funding
Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006" was passed and made into
US law. The bill, backed by Obama and Tom Coburn (R), mandated the
creation of a 'Google for Government', with a clear and transparent
site for giving us data about US government expenditures.

The result is a gold mine of data about what's going on in the United
States government, available at:

http://usaspending.gov.

To whet your appetite, here are some goodies:

Spending in Tom Delay's congressional district:

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?reptype=r&database=fpds&fiscal_year=2006&detail=-1&mustcd=y&datype=T&sortby=f&pop_cd2=TX22

(Note: Delay was elected house majority leader in 2003)

Paper shredding has mysteriously increased over time:

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?reptype=a&database=fpds&mod_agency=&mod_fund_agency=&PIID=&psc_cat=&psc_sub=R614&contractor_type=&descriptionOfContractRequirement=&compete_cat=&dollar_tot=&fiscal_year=&first_year_range=&last_year_range=&detail=-1&datype=T&email=

The amount given to KBR (division of Halliburton):

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?parent_id=334031&sortby=u&detail=-1&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&fiscal_year=&submit=GO

The amount given to Blackwater:

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?database=fpds&reptype=r&detail=-1&sortby=a&datype=T&parent_id=38113&fiscal_year=2007

The top 100 contractors in 2006:

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/tables.php?tabtype=t2&subtype=t&year=2006

The amount given to IBM, Microsoft, and Google:

http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?parent_id=136523&sortby=u&detail=-1&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&fiscal_year=&submit=GO
http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?reptype=r&detail=-1&sortby=f&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&database=fpds&parent_id=188285&fiscal_year=2007&record_num=f500
http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?reptype=r&detail=-1&sortby=f&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&database=fpds&parent_id=118170&fiscal_year=2006&record_num=f500

I could go on -- but this site is great! They even have an API for
their data. It's relatively new (having launched Dec 12th), and here's a story
about it in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202701.html?hpid%3Dsec-politics&sub=AR