A tour of the application and some screenshots can be found here

  

1. Recovery Act money spent on US Federal Government Contracts and on US Federal Government Grants (Assistance Programs)

 

2. Data for specific departments (e.g. Defense Department, NASA, Education Department etc. )

 

3. Data for each one of the 50 states (e.g. money spent on all Recovery Act Govt contracts in California in 2009, money spent on all Recovery Act Grants (Assistance Programs) in Florida in 2010 etc.)

 

4. Detailed information including spending numbers, pie charts, line graphs for spending trend, top purchases or assistance programs, top contractors or grant recipients.

5. Continuous updates of data.

 

Note that this open-government app provides data on Recovery Act government contracts and Recovery Act government grants because they're both subject to reporting requirements (as mandated by Congress). However, the money spent on contracts and grants will not add up to $787 Billion. The $787 Recovery Act also includes money for other items such as tax cuts, social security payments, tax incentives etc., but those items don't have the same reporting requirements and aren't accessible to the app. Money spent on these items (tax cuts, social security payments etc.) will not be displayed by the app.

This app is one of a series of civic software apps from Cascade Software Corporation. It is a tool that will help the involved citizen who wants to hold the government accountable for Recovery Act spending decisions. It is also a good tool to help the casual user understand how Recovery Act money is being spent or to win arguments with politically minded, but ignorant friends.

 

The app requires internet connectivity and it gets its data from US Federal Government web servers that are generally updated on a daily basis.