Search the Stimulus To Your Heart's Content

The non-profit group OMB Watch today released a beta version of a new FedSpending.org database on the Recovery Act. The database aims to improve public access to and the searchability of stimulus data. It will allow users to search more than 160,000 recipient reports on almost $159 billion in Recovery Act contracts, grants and loans awarded between Feb. 17 and Sept. 30.

All the data now available on FedSpending.org was obtained through Recovery.gov, the government's stimulus data site, but OMB Watch says its search functions are more user friendly, allowing the public to search for prime recipients, sub-recipients, Zip codes, congressional districts, awarding agency, award amounts, etc. Search results can also be downloaded from the site.

"We created the Recovery Act data tab to expand the options people have for searching, sorting, and analyzing Recovery Act data," said OMB Watch Executive Director Gary D. Bass. "The mapping features on Recovery.gov are great, but there are lots of other ways to interact with this data. We hope our website serves as a springboard for further changes at Recovery.gov."

OMB Watch is warning that, despite their best efforts, this version of may contain some technical errors, as it was created in just a month at relatively low cost.