Query federal spending awards by recipient using the USAspending.gov API
domain: usaspending.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
POST to https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ with a JSON body specifying 'filters' including 'recipient_search_text' (business name or UEI) and 'award_type_codes' (e.g., ['A','B','C','D'] for contracts)
Set 'fields' in the request body to the award attributes you need such as 'Award ID', 'Recipient Name', 'Award Amount', 'Awarding Agency', and 'Period of Performance Current End Date'
Paginate through results using the 'page' and 'limit' parameters in the request body until the response 'hasNext' field is false
For a specific award, GET https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/{award_id}/ to retrieve full transaction history and subaward data
Use the 'download' endpoints for bulk exports if pulling more than a few hundred records, as the search endpoint has practical page limits
Known gotchas
USAspending data is reported by agencies with a lag of up to 30 days; very recent awards may not yet appear in query results
Recipient names in USAspending are normalized but not perfectly deduped — the same company may appear under slight name variations or different UEIs if it has multiple registrations; use UEI for precise matching rather than name search
The 'Award Amount' field reflects the current obligated amount which can change with modifications; the original award value and the current value may differ significantly for multi-year contracts
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