USA Spending Federal Data Scraper

Extract US federal government spending data from USASpending.gov — the official transparency platform tracking $6+ trillion in annual federal contracts, grants, loans, and financial assistance.

Features

• Search Awards — search federal contracts, grants, and loans by keyword, agency, and date range
• Top Recipients — find the biggest recipients of federal spending
• Agency Spending — explore all federal agencies ranked by budgetary resources

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	select	Operation mode (see below)
searchQuery	string	Keywords to search awards or recipients
awardTypes	select	Filter by award type (contracts, grants, loans, etc.)
agency	string	Awarding agency name filter
startDate	string	Start date filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
endDate	string	End date filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to return (1–500, default 50)

Modes

Mode	Description
searchAwards	Search federal awards by keyword, agency, and date range
topRecipients	Get top recipients of federal spending
agencySpending	List federal agencies ranked by budgetary resources

Award Types

Value	Description
contracts	BPA calls, purchase orders, delivery orders, definitive contracts
grants	Block grants, formula grants, project grants, cooperative agreements
loans	Direct loans, guaranteed/insured loans
direct_payments	Formula funded and unrestricted direct payments
other_financial_assistance	Insurance, reimbursable agreements

Output

Each award record contains:

Field	Type	Description
awardId	string	Unique identifier for the federal award
recipientName	string	Name of the award recipient
awardAmount	number	Total obligation in US dollars
awardingAgencyName	string	Name of the awarding federal agency
awardType	string	Type of award (contract, grant, etc.)
startDate	string	Award start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
endDate	string	Award end date (YYYY-MM-DD)
description	string	Description of the work or purpose
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

Example Output

{
  "awardId": "DESC0014664",
  "recipientName": "ACME CONSTRUCTION LLC",
  "awardAmount": 3061819994.03,
  "awardingAgencyName": "Department of Energy",
  "awardType": "Definitive Contract",
  "startDate": "2023-01-15",
  "endDate": "2025-12-31",
  "description": "Construction and infrastructure modernization services",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-03T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Use Cases

• Government transparency — track where federal dollars are going
• Business intelligence — identify contracting opportunities by agency and keyword
• Research & journalism — analyze spending patterns across agencies and time periods
• Policy analysis — compare budget allocations across federal departments
• Vendor research — discover top recipients of government contracts in specific sectors

Data Source

All data comes from the USASpending.gov API — the official US government open data platform mandated by the DATA Act. The API is completely free and requires no API key or registration.

FAQs

Is an API key required? No. The USASpending.gov API is completely free and publicly accessible with no authentication required.

How current is the data? USASpending.gov data is typically updated daily. Award data usually reflects transactions within 30 days of occurrence.

What is the total amount of federal spending tracked? USASpending.gov tracks over $6 trillion in annual federal spending across all executive branch agencies.

What does searchAwards search by default? When no awardTypes is specified, the actor searches contracts (the most common and reliably populated award type). To search grants, set awardTypes to grants.

Can I search for education grants specifically? Yes — set mode=searchAwards, searchQuery=education, awardTypes=grants to find education grants.

What date range should I use? Federal fiscal years run October 1 to September 30. For FY2024 data: startDate=2023-10-01, endDate=2024-09-30.