Use USAspending.gov Advanced Search to find federal awards and track obligations, outlays, recipients, and reported transactions. To learn whether the work is actually underway or complete, follow the award to the responsible agency or project recipient and check project-specific schedule and milestone updates: spending records show the flow of money, not construction completion.
What federal spending records can—and cannot—tell you
Federal spending data helps identify awards and follow reported financial activity. An obligation is a binding commitment to spend funds; an outlay is money distributed for payment. Neither term, on its own, says how much physical work has been completed.
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Funding can be awarded or obligated before construction begins, and outlays can lag obligations. Some agreements obligate funds in phases such as design, pre-construction, and construction. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) IIJA tracker separates grants announced, binding obligations, and outlays. Treat those as funding-pipeline stages, not construction milestones. DOT IIJA Funding Status
There is no single federal-wide public registry in the sources covered here that verifies construction milestones for every agency, contract, grant, and pass-through award. A missing update in one spending portal does not prove that no project update exists; seek out the agency and recipient reporting for the project.
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- Open Advanced Search. Go to USAspending.gov Search and enter a distinctive project name, scope term, recipient, or place. Search multiple phrases if the local name differs from the formal award title. USAspending’s own examples include “highway construction.” USAspending.gov Search
- Narrow the results. Use filters such as fiscal year or a custom date range, awarding agency, award type, recipient, location, award description, and amount. The available filters are described in USAspending’s data sources and methodology guide.
- Confirm you have the right record. Compare the agency, recipient, description, award type, dates, and location. If you have a federal award identifier—such as a contract’s PIID—search for it to distinguish the record from similarly named projects.
- Check both locations. The recipient’s address and the award’s primary place of performance can differ. The latter is generally more useful when looking for where the funded work is intended to occur.
- Capture the useful fields. Record the recipient, awarding agency and subagency, award description, award type, primary place of performance, period of performance, obligations, outlays, and transaction history. Note the page’s date or transaction dates as well: federal award data is reported through source systems and can have timing or data-quality limitations.
USAspending describes its API as allowing the public to access comprehensive U.S. government spending data. Its API documentation identifies V2 as current and says V1 endpoints are deprecated. USAspending API
Use SAM.gov for another contract-data view
For a federal contract, search the relevant award identifier and project terms in SAM.gov’s contract-data reports. SAM.gov provides another view of the contract award lifecycle; it complements, rather than replaces, USAspending’s broader award and transaction search. SAM.gov Contract Data Reports
Track implementation through the agency or recipient
Once you have the award name, identifier, agency, and recipient, search the administering agency’s site and the recipient’s site. Look for project pages, grant agreements, environmental review records, procurement or construction notices, progress reports, oversight reports, and local updates. For physical progress, favor dated reports that describe work performed or milestones reached over dollar totals alone.
Useful project reporting may include:
- Scope: what work the project covers and any changes to it.
- Schedule: planned dates, completed milestones, delays, and revised dates.
- Budget: the amount or funding status, with the reporting date and scope made clear.
- Activities and issues: work performed, significant events, and reported obstacles.
Reporting requirements are program-specific. For projects covered by FY2025 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant agreements, a DOT performance-report exhibit calls for quarterly reporting on overall scope, schedule, and budget status, plus significant activities and issues. That requirement should not be assumed to apply to other federal awards. DOT Safe Streets and Roads for All reporting exhibit
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Choose a specialized tracker only when its scope fits
| Source | What it covers | What its status means | Update or date context |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOT IIJA Funding Status | Funding provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and DOT’s associated funding pipeline. | Available funding, announced grants, binding obligations, and outlays; these are funding stages, not universal construction-completion measures. | DOT says the page is updated monthly. The version checked for this article reported status as of July 31, 2026; consult the live page for its current as-of date. |
| GAO Tracking the Funds | Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending, with an interactive map and downloadable project-level data. | Funding and implementation findings for this defined set of projects. Reported estimates rely on stated samples and dates, not all federal construction projects. | GAO’s page summarizes FY2022–FY2024 funding and implementation findings with defined periods and samples. |
| DOT Build America project information | Transportation projects financed through TIFIA and RRIF programs. | Project and portfolio details, including financing review and closing milestones—not a general construction-completion system. | Use the individual project record for its financing milestones and characteristics. |
Read funding and project-status figures with their scope attached
Every figure needs its reporting date, denominator, and scope. A dollar amount obligated is not a percentage of construction completed. A sample-based implementation estimate describes the stated sample and population, not every federal project.
- GAO’s 2026 page summarizes $39 billion for 20,294 projects in FY2022–FY2024 Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending.
- For a generalizable sample of 790 FY2022–FY2024 projects, GAO reported that about 61% was obligated and about 16% was both obligated and outlayed by the end of FY2024. These are funding statuses for that defined sample and period, not construction-completion rates.
- For a generalizable sample of 167 FY2022–FY2023 projects that moved forward with funding, GAO reported that about two-thirds of recipients had projects underway or completed by summer 2025. This is a sample-based implementation finding with a stated recipient condition and date, not a universal federal project success or completion rate.
See the GAO page for the underlying scope, dates, and methodological context before comparing these numbers with a particular project or another program. GAO Tracking the Funds
