This is the third in a four part series blog post spotlighting Carroll Publishing’s GovSearch.
How to Research Government Spending
The GovSearch website allows you to research government spending on the federal, state, and local levels. To research spending, locate the Spending tab on the GovSearch homepage. After locating the spending tab, you have multiple options to choose from including Procurements, Federal Budget, Federal Employment, State and Local Expenses, and State and Local Employment.
Below is a view of the GovSearch home page. The green box highlights the available options under the Spending tab.
After selecting an option under the Spending tab, you can further narrow your search depending on what option you choose. For example, if you choose the Federal Budget, you can select from the list of several federal agencies.
Below is a view of the agencies available under the Federal Budget. The green box indicates the agencies to choose from.
After selecting a specific agency, the website will take you to a PDF version of the specific agency’s budget.
Below is a view of a page from the Agricultural Marketing Service’s federal budget.
Along with agency budgets, you can view federal contracts. You can access contracts by selecting Contracts under the Procurements option located under the Spending tab.
After choosing Contracts, you can start by choosing by Category, Funding Office, Keyword, or Vendor. The results page offers information including Category, Subcategory, Actual Dollars, Completion Date, Parent, Vendor, Department, and Office.
After clicking on a specific contract, you can view the specific transactions.
Below is a view of the results page. The green box indicates the types of information provided in the columns.
Access to Carroll Publishing’s database is available through the Texas Tech Law Library website under the Electronic Databases tab.
The Reporter 