Improving U.S. Federal Spending Transparency

Amy B. Edwards Senior Advisor, Financial Transparency

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Background on U.S. Transparency

• Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act– established USAspending.gov in 2006

• Publish data for contracts, grants, other financial assistance

• USAspending.gov management moved to Treasury Department in 2014

USAspending.gov

New Transparency Law

Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) of 2014:

– Expands USAspending.gov to include Federal government expenditures

– Requires consistent data standards for all reporting

– Enable the data to be used by multiple communities

– New data reported in May 2017 at least quarterly

DATA Act Information Model Schema

The Schema provides a standardized definition and conceptual model for the information relevant to the domain and public reporting of US Federal spending.

The Schema informs:

• How data providers select and organize information to submit

• What information is stored and how it is related

• How consumers can access and interpret information

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DATA Act Information Model Schema

• Data Elements Guidance (DEG) – contains a comprehensive listing of the elements with supporting metadata to understand context, relationships, and derivations

• Schema Diagrams – visual representations of how the data elements fit together in context

• Online Data Dictionary – a list of data elements with definitions and minimal metadata, like data type

• XBRL Schema Files – a machine-readable format of the elements that federal agencies submit

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DATA Act Schema Diagrams

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Treasury’s Implementation Approach

• Data-Centric Extraction: Use technology to minimize costly systems changes

• Agile Technology Development: Build systems in 2-weeks sprints to reduce risk and improve outcomes

• User-Centered Design: Develop the new website in the public domain with real-time collaboration with users

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User-Centered Design

• Launch an early beta site to allow the public to shape the future USAspending.gov (or a successor site)

• Public can post input and ideas to contribute to the design of the site

• Ongoing integration of public feedback on the development

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OpenBeta.USAspending.gov

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Feedback Added to Agile Development

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For More Information Visit:

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https://fedspendingtransparency.github.io/