The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) was signed into law on September 26, 2006. The legislation required that federal contract, grant, loan, and other financial assistance awards of more than $25,000 be displayed on a searchable, publicly accessible website, usaspending.gov, to give the American public access to information on how their tax dollars are being spent. As a matter of discretion, usaspending.gov also displays certain federal contracts of more than $3,000. The initial site went live in 2007.

Federal agencies are required to report the name of the entity receiving the award, the amount of the award, the recipient’s location, the place of performance location, as well as other information. In 2008, FFATA was amended by the Government Funding Transparency Act to require prime recipients to report details on their first-tier sub-recipients for awards made as of October 1, 2010.

While many of the requirements of FFATA are specific to federal agencies, recipients of federal awards are also required to electronically report to the federal government information on sub-award and executive compensation. Effective with all grants with a start date of 10/1/10 and later, state agencies must submit reports to the FFATA Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) for display on www.usaspending.gov. The prime awardee must report information related to a sub-award by the end of the month following the month the sub-award or obligation was made.

Grants subject to reporting under Section 1512 (ARRA grants) are exempt from FFATA reporting.

Other federal websites that provide information on this topic include:

Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006

OMB Memo on Subaward and Compensation Data Reporting

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 01/23/2023