Follow the flow › Step 13 of 16 · Money path
13. Contracts to contractors
A contract pays a company (the contractor or vendor) for goods or work: roads, computers, studies, cleanup. The record shows who got paid, how much, for what, and where the work happens. This is where PSI Sci started, with Texas TCEQ contracts.
Who holds the money or the vote here?
After payment, the contractor holds the money.
How often does it happen?
Every day; big contracts run for years.
Where the records come from
Federal data is the same for everyone. When you pick a state, the state and local rows are the places to look for your state. "Have now" means PSI Sci already collects it; "Planned" means we list the source but do not collect it yet.
| Level | Source | Format | How often | On PSI Sci |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal | USAspending contracts (FPDS) totals by state/county/district are collected now | API/bulk | daily | Planned |
| State | Texas TCEQ contracts and purchase orders (data.texas.gov) (Texas only) PSI Sci collects this | Socrata API | daily | Have now |
| State | Other state procurement / contract portals tracked as todo rows <state>-procurement | varies | varies | Planned |
| County | County purchasing / contracts list | page/PDF | varies | Planned |
| City | City contracts (open data portal) | page/bulk | varies | Planned |
| District | USAspending contracts by congressional district district totals | API | monthly | Have now |
| ZIP | USAspending contracts by place-of-performance ZIP | API | daily | Planned |
See these sources as searchable records (rendered live).
See it on PSI Sci now
Variable names
| Variable | Federal | State | County | City | District | ZIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
contract_award_amount | fed_contract_award_amount | st_contract_award_amount | cnty_contract_award_amount | cty_contract_award_amount | dist_contract_award_amount | zip_contract_award_amount |
contract_recipient | fed_contract_recipient | st_contract_recipient | cnty_contract_recipient | cty_contract_recipient | dist_contract_recipient | zip_contract_recipient |
recipient_uei | recipient_uei | recipient_uei | recipient_uei | recipient_uei | recipient_uei | recipient_uei |
contract_naics | fed_contract_naics | st_contract_naics | cnty_contract_naics | cty_contract_naics | dist_contract_naics | zip_contract_naics |
piid | piid | piid | piid | piid | piid | piid |
place_of_performance_zip | fed_place_of_performance_zip | st_place_of_performance_zip | cnty_place_of_performance_zip | cty_place_of_performance_zip | dist_place_of_performance_zip | zip_place_of_performance_zip |
IDs (like bioguide_id, bill_id, piid, zcta) have no prefix because they already say what they point to.