Notes on Methodology, TAGGS

The grant information contained in this report is from the HHS TAGGS, which contains data generated by the HHS grant-making operating divisions (OPDIVs) and several staff divisions (STAFFDIVs) within the Office of the Secretary (OS). For purposes of this report, OS is considered an OPDIV. Developed and maintained by the Office of Grants (OG), TAGGS is the Department’s central repository for all HHS grant award data.

TAGGS currently tracks obligated grant funds of mandatory and discretionary grant programs at the primary transaction level. HHS grant-making OPDIVs submit grant award data to the TAGGS database monthly and annually. Other data submitted to TAGGS include grant recipient demographic (e.g., type of organization, address); funding and grants payments, managed in the Payment Management System; and descriptive program information included in the CFDA Web site at http://www.cfda.gov.

The OG maintains a public web site at http://taggs.hhs.gov, where users are able to view standard TAGGS-generated reports and to query the database. This TAGGS Web site is used by HHS staff, congressional offices, other executive agencies, potential and current grant recipients, and other interested parties for a variety of informational purposes. Some commonly searched TAGGS fields are congressional district, grant program name, recipient (grantee) name, recipient location (state, city, zip, and/or congressional district), awarding OPDIV, transaction amount (or sum of transactions), and fiscal year.

The data in this report reflect all grant awards obligated during FY 2008. The number of grants is a count of awards or projects receiving grant funds. This report also includes funds deobligated in FY 2008 that were awarded in prior fiscal years. Deobligations are downward adjustments to previously awarded obligations, representing cost revisions, corrections, or award cancellation. However, any deobligations to FY 2008 Awards occurring in subsequent fiscal years will not be contained in this report.

The data contained in this report may not agree with the FY 2008 budget and accounting records (e.g., Medicaid’s accounting adjustments) for several reasons. For examples: 1) the grant award data may include reobligations of prior years’ funds in addition to current year funds; 2) the cost of furnishing personnel in lieu of cash are included in the grants data, but are recorded as personnel service costs in accounting records; and 3) jointly funded grants are included in accounting records, but are not included herein unless awards are made by HHS programs.

The dollar amounts set forth in this report for each OPDIV may also differ from the amounts shown in the each OPDIV’s Budget Request (“Preliminary Budget Submission to HHS,” the “Justification of Budget Estimates to OMB,” and the “Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees”). Percentages used throughout the report may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding and other minor adjustments.