Treasury rolls out open beta for new USASpending.gov

USASpending’s open beta gives people more than 18 months to suggest new features ahead of the May 2017 DATA Act deadline. (USASpending.gov)

The Treasury Department rolled out an open beta of the new USASpending.gov, coming one step closer to meeting the requirements of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act.

In a Tuesday blog post, Treasury Financial Management Service Commissioner David Lebryk, said the site will provide “a unique opportunity for the public to review, test, and provide feedback on data display and search functionality components that will inform Treasury’s efforts to support the needs of data users.”

The site launched with two data explorer tools, giving the public a chance to search through federal contract and federal grant data. According to the page’s source code, the tools were stood up using data discovery service Socrata.

The site also rolled out a section where users can provide feedback on different search capabilities, with one currently live for use.

The data used in the open beta is limited. According to the site, the data currently posted is contractual infromation for the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years through August 2015. The search functionality is only available for that data set, and some of the results cannot be downloaded.

The tools currently featured in the current open beta. (USASpending.gov)

There is also a forum associated with the site where users can provide feedback and suggestions for new services.

The DATA Act requires agencies to make their financial, budget, payment, grant and contract data interoperable when published to USASpending.gov, the federal government’s hub of publicly available financial data, by May 9, 2017.

“When the final USAspending.gov — the taxpayer site built for taxpayer needs — goes live in May 2017, you will have an open window into government spending,” a section reads on the open beta site. “You will be able to track Federal spending from congressional appropriation down to purchase and grant details — what was bought, from whom, when, and for how much.”