Government spending website coming soon

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 calls for a single searchable website to allow access to information regarding all federal awards. It defines federal awards as:

grants, subgrants, loans, awards,cooperative agreements, and other forms of financial assistance; [and includes] contracts, subcontracts,
purchase orders, task orders, and delivery orders [but] does not include individual transactions below $25,000; and...before October 1, 2008, does not include credit card transactions.

The linked article is a good overview of the proposed system, describing it as a "Google-like search engine and database."

There are two interesting aspects to this. First is trying to get all the data that this calls for and to keep it updated (there is a requriement all information is updated within 30 days of award). The Federal Procurement Data System-New Generation is supposed to have that, at least for federal contract information, but doesn't. Good luck integrating that data.

The other interesting part to me is the emphasis on subcontracts. Since the focus lately on the sub-sub-sub-contracts of the Army's LOGCAP contracts, this could be quite an expansive system. Of course, the bill calls for contractors to charge for this reporting effort.

This upside, though, is that if it increases the visibility of how important federal procurement is to the U.S. economy, it may be a good thing.