“In conjunction with the recent enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) (Pub. L. 113-101) and our ongoing efforts to improve federal spending data under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), the federal government is working to establish government-wide financial data standards and increase the availability, accuracy, and usefulness of federal spending information.

• On May 8, 2015 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Treasury Department issued a blog post: “Better data, Better decisions, Better government” and OMB issued guidance to federal agencies: “Increasing Transparency of Federal Spending by Making Federal Spending Data Accessible, Searchable, and Reliable”.
• The U.S. Treasury Department issued a solicitation for public input on the establishment of federal financial data exchange standards via a Federal Register Notice. The Federal Register comments are closed and have been summarized in this presentation. See all of the comments here.

Federal Spending Data Elements – The lists on this page contain two types of federal spending data elements:

1. Existing Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) data elements, which are currently featured on USAspending.gov
2. Additional data elements required by the DATA Act that will be featured on USASpending.gov once the DATA Act is fully implemented

The elements on these lists are currently being discussed by members of the federal community as part of the DATA Act. At the current time, these lists are exhaustive. That said, the federal community is aware of agencies’ and the larger community’s needs and may add and standardize new elements to improve transparency reporting moving forward. The data elements are grouped by category; each short list represents a different category. In addition, each element will have own GitHub issue, which is where you can add to the discussion on that element. To share your thoughts, simply click on the link in an element’s feedback column to be rerouted to its GitHub issue page, where you can leave your feedback in the blank comment box.”