Help Treasury Reinvent USAspending.gov

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the Department of the Treasury's blog. See the original post here. 

Today the U.S. Treasury Department and the Center for Open Data Enterprise co-hosted an open data roundtable meeting to explore opportunities to increase public access and the usability of federal spending data. For eight years, USAspending.gov has been a resource for the public to find this kind of data. We want to make this website better than ever.

At today’s meeting, Treasury announced the launch of OpenBeta.USAspending.gov, our new beta site for testing ideas and obtaining feedback from the American people on the design of the future USASpending.gov site that will be completed in 2017.

The meeting and the open beta website are part of Treasury’s efforts to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). The DATA Act seeks to expand spending transparency to provide the public with a better understanding of the U.S. Government’s finances and to increase access to and use of spending data. Today’s event invited current users of federal spending data to use the blog/discussion board feature to provide feedback on the open beta website.

The new OpenBeta.USAspending.gov provides 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. Over the next two years, Treasury will add new features and functionalities for the public to review on a rolling basis.

While the open beta site is available for public input, the USAspending.gov website will continue to be the official source for federal spending data.

Please visit the OpenBeta.USAspending.gov site and help Treasury build the future of USAspending.gov.

David Lebryk is Fiscal Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department.