OMB updates guidelines for USASpending.gov data

The Office of Management and Budget released revised guidelines this week for submitting contract and grant data to the Web site USASpending.gov.

In a June 1 memorandum to agency heads, Vivek Kundra, federal chief information officer, directed officials to submit contract and grant data to OMB twice rather than once a month. The memo also provided details on data standards and methods for presenting the information.

USASpending.gov was developed in response to the 2006 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. The act requires OMB to maintain a Web site disclosing all organizations receiving more than $25,000 in federal funds.

Agencies have struggled to comply with the law, leading Coburn to send President Obama a letter in March asking when delinquent agencies would be updating their data and when the site would include mandatory information on subgrants and subcontracts. OMB Director Peter R. Orszag in April told Coburn the administration will use the new stimulus transparency site Recovery.gov as a model for meeting the subaward requirements.

But the site remains a work in progress and at this point mainly links to outside sources of information on stimulus implementation. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board is planning to issue a request for proposals in the coming weeks so vendors can bid to redesign Recovery.gov as part of an expedited competition. It must be ready by Oct. 10, when Recovery Act recipients are required to file their first full spending reports. A recovery board spokesman this week said he is optimistic about meeting that deadline.

But a source close to the situation who asked not to be named said the board has been struggling with the site's requirements and met recently with OMB to discuss shifting some of the responsibility to agencies -- an approach OMB officials opposed. The source said the recovery board has hired MITRE Corp. to do a study on how the site should be created, which is expected to be released later this month. The source said the board also has discussed the cost of developing the site with contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

In a May 19 letter to Orszag, Coburn recommended the recovery board use USASpending.gov to supply the public with information until Recovery.gov is revamped.

"Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that Recovery.gov will not be fully operational until this fall at the earliest, and possibly even as late as spring 2010, after a large portion of the stimulus funds have already been spent," Coburn wrote. "I believe the immediate solution to this delay in Recovery.gov transparency is available in USASpending.gov. Most, if not all, of the information to be provided to Recovery.gov is already required to be posted on USASpending.gov."

OMB did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.