Glossary

Last checked against the agency pages: 2 Oct 2026

Each term has one meaning on this site. The first text is a plain explanation. The quotation is the text of USAspending, with a link to its entry.

Obligation

A binding promise of an agency to pay. An obligation is not a payment. Each amount on this site is an obligation, unless the text says otherwise.

The words of USAspending: When awarding funding, the U.S. government enters a binding agreement called an obligation. The government promises to spend the money, either immediately or in the future. An agency incurs an obligation, for example, when it places an order, signs a contract, awards a grant, purchases a service, or takes other actions that require it to make a payment. USAspending glossary, Obligation

Outlay

Money that the government pays out. The site shows no outlays.

The words of USAspending: An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out, not just promised to be paid ("obligated"). USAspending glossary, Outlay

Award

An agreement of an agency to give money to a recipient. A contract, a grant, a loan, a direct payment and other assistance are awards.

The words of USAspending: Money the federal government has promised to pay a recipient. Funding may be awarded to a company, organization, government entity (i.e., state, local, tribal, federal, or foreign), or individual. It may be obligated (promised) in the form of a contract, grant, loan, insurance, direct payment, etc. USAspending glossary, Award

Award value

The total that an agency has obligated to one award to date, over all fiscal years. The lists of awards use it. It is not the obligations of one fiscal year.

The words of USAspending: The amount that the federal government has promised to pay (obligated) a recipient, because it has signed a contract, awarded a grant, etc. USAspending glossary, Award Amount

Contract

An agreement to buy goods or services. Every contract has a NAICS code.

The words of USAspending: An agreement between the federal government and a prime recipient to provide goods and services for a fee. USAspending glossary, Contract

Grant

Money that an agency gives for a public purpose. The recipient does not repay it.

The words of USAspending: An award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public project or service authorized by a United States law. Unlike loans, grants do not need to be repaid. USAspending glossary, Grant

Direct payment

A cash payment of the government to a person or an organisation. Social Security is an example. These payments make the figures for each resident larger.

The words of USAspending: A cash payment made by the federal government to an individual, a private firm, or another private institution. USAspending glossary, Direct Payment

Loan

Money that a borrower must repay. For a loan, the obligations of a fiscal year count the subsidy cost, not the face value.

The words of USAspending: A federal award from the government that the borrower will eventually have to pay back. Direct loans are those made for a specific time period with a reasonable expectation of repayment; they may or may not require interest payments. Guaranteed loans require the federal government to pay the bank and take over the loan if the borrower defaults. USAspending glossary, Loan

Loan subsidy cost

The estimated cost of a loan to the government. The fiscal year figures of loans count it. The lists of awards show the face value of a loan.

The words of USAspending: When the government makes a direct loan or guarantees a loan, it expects the loan to be repaid. However, for any given loan program (e.g., student loans, small business loan guarantees) some individual loans are not repaid. Subsidy cost is the government’s way to estimate a loan’s likely cost to the government based on the size of the loan (i.e., its Face value), interest rate, the modeled risk of default in full or in part, and other factors. Subsidy cost is computed as a percentage of the loan value and does not include administrative costs. USAspending glossary, Loan Subsidy Cost

Other financial assistance

Assistance that is not a grant, a loan or a direct payment. The site puts it with insurance in the award type "Other assistance".

The words of USAspending: Financial assistance from the Federal Government that is not described by any of the previously-defined assistance types. USAspending glossary, Other Financial Assistance

Assistance listing

A federal assistance program with a number in the form XX.XXX. Older documents call it a CFDA program. Each grant, loan and direct payment has one.

The words of USAspending: Assistance Listings, previously known as "CFDA programs", provide a full listing of federal programs that are available to organizations, government agencies (state, local, tribal), U.S. territories, and individuals who are authorized to do business with the government. An Assistance Listing program can be a project, service, or activity. Each program has a unique, 5-digit number in the form of XX.XXX. The first two digits represent the funding agency. The last three digits represent the program. USAspending glossary, Assistance Listings (CFDA Program)

NAICS

The code of the industry of a contract. Only contracts have a NAICS code. Grants, loans and direct payments have none.

The words of USAspending: NAICS stands for the North American Industrial Classification System. This 6-digit code tells you what industry the work falls into. Each contract record has a NAICS code. That means you can look up how much money the U.S. government spent in a specific industry. USAspending glossary, NAICS

Awarding agency

The agency that issues and administers an award. Agency pages on this site count the awards that the agency made.

The words of USAspending: The Awarding Agency is the agency that issues and administers the award. This agency usually pays for the funding out of its own budget. In some cases, the money is financed by another agency, called the Funding Agency. USAspending glossary, Awarding Agency

Sub-agency

A part of an awarding agency. The Internal Revenue Service is a sub-agency of the Department of the Treasury.

The words of USAspending: The Awarding Sub Agency is the sub agency that issues and administers the award. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a sub agency of the Department of the Treasury. USAspending glossary, Awarding Sub-Agency

Recipient

The organisation or the government that receives an award. The site shows organisations only.

The words of USAspending: A company, organization, individual, or government entity (i.e., state, local, tribal, federal, or foreign), that receives funding from the U.S. government. USAspending glossary, Recipient

Parent recipient

The ultimate parent of a recipient, as USAspending gives it. A recipient page links to its parent when the parent has a page.

The words of USAspending: The name of the ultimate parent of the awardee or recipient. USAspending glossary, Ultimate Parent Legal Entity Name

UEI (Unique Entity Identifier)

The code of 12 letters and digits that identifies a recipient in SAM.gov. The finder accepts a UEI.

The words of USAspending: The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) for an awardee or recipient is an alphanumeric code created in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) that is used to uniquely identify specific commercial, nonprofit, or business entities registered to do business with the federal government. USAspending glossary, Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

Place of performance

The place where the work of an award is done. The figures for a county, a district and a state use it. It is not always the address of the recipient.

The words of USAspending: The principal place of business, where the majority of the work is performed. For example, in a manufacturing contract, this would be the main plant where items are produced. USAspending glossary, Primary Place of Performance

Recipient location

The legal business address of a recipient. The lists of recipients by state use it.

The words of USAspending: Legal business address of the recipient. USAspending glossary, Recipient Location

Fiscal year

A period of 12 months from 1 October to 30 September. It has the number of the year in which it ends. FY2026 ends on 30 September 2026.

The words of USAspending: The fiscal year is an accounting period that spans 12 months. For the federal government, it runs from October 1 to September 30. For example, Fiscal Year 2017 (FY 2017) starts October 1, 2016 and ends September 30, 2017. USAspending glossary, Fiscal Year (FY)

Base obligation date

The date of the first action of an award. The pages for each month list the new awards with a base obligation date in the month.

The words of USAspending: The action date of the original Prime Award Transaction of a Prime Award Summary. USAspending glossary, Base Transaction Action Date

De-obligation

A cancellation or a reduction of an earlier obligation. The obligations of a fiscal year can be below zero when the de-obligations are larger than the new obligations. USAspending writes the word without a hyphen.

The words of USAspending: The cancellation or downward adjustment of previously obligated funds. Agencies deobligate funds to decrease the amount available under an award. Deobligated funds may be reobligated within the period of availability of the appropriation. USAspending glossary, Deobligation

Extent competed

A code of the Federal Procurement Data System that shows how a contract was competed. The agency pages show the codes as the agency reported them.

The words of USAspending: A code that represents the competitive nature of the contract. USAspending glossary, Extent Competed

Closed fiscal year

A fiscal year that the site loaded after it ended. Agencies can still correct its figures, so the site loads it again once, three months after the year end.