2017 TAGGS Annual Report

Department of Health & Human Services

Main Content

Welcome to TAGGS

The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. In support of its mission, HHS manages hundreds of programs which awards approximately 98,799 grants annually. Tracking and accounting for HHS grant spending and providing high quality data to the public and external stakeholders is critical to fulfilling HHS's mission and strategic goals.

  • HHS awarded 98,799 grants to over 12,000 recipients.
  • HHS awarded approximately $494 billion in grants.
  • The 6 states receiving the most HHS grant funds were California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
  • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) awarded over 79% of all HHS grant dollars.
  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded about 71% of all HHS awards.
  • HHS awarded $441 billion, or 89% of the total grant award dollars, to entitlement (or non-discretionary) grants.
  • Of the $53 billion in discretionary grants, HHS agencies awarded $1.2 billion to 111 international recipients.
  • Universities and colleges represent 36 of the top 50 HHS discretionary grant recipients.
HHS Grant Management Process: Planning, Announcement, Application Evaluation, Negotiation, Award, Postaward Monitoring, Closeout

The Annual Report

This annual report reflects a summary of grants HHS awarded during Fiscal Year 2017 (October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2017). Grants are a legal instrument reflecting the relationship between the United States Government and a State, local government, or other entity when “the principal purpose of the relationship is to transfer a thing of value to the State or local government or other recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States instead of acquiring (by purchase, lease, or barter) property or services for the direct benefit or use of the United States Government” (31 U.S.C. §6304).

This report does not include information related to technical assistance, which provides services instead of money; or contracts, which are required to be entered into and administered under procurement laws and regulations.

The public can view how HHS tracks and accounts for grant spending by visiting the Annual Reports section on the Tracking Accountability In Government Grants System (TAGGS) Website (taggs.hhs.gov/AnnualReport). Users can download the full report in the PDF format, or view the report online for a fully visual and interactive experience. Both formats provide an open and transparent view of HHS‘s grants portfolio: the PDF summarizes grant data at a high level displaying tables and charts for quick viewing; while the online report enhances the users experience by providing interactive maps and graphs that make it easy for visitors to explore award data in multiple views and provides tools to customize and display information, as well as download graphs and data.

Executive Summary

Implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act and the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act were two major areas of focus for the HHS grants community during 2017. The purpose of the DATA Act is to establish government-wide data standards that can be shared by multiple communities and increase the availability, accuracy, and usefulness of Federal spending information. The purpose of the GONE Act is to improve the timely closeout of Federal grant awards to improve accountability and oversight in grants management. HHS workgroups put forth significant effort to insure the Department was well positioned to meet reporting requirements pertaining to the financial assistance community for both Acts. In addition to this work, the HHS grants community continued working on improving the quality of the agency’s financial assistance data, and increasing transparency within federal programs.

The data for the annual report comes from TAGGS which is managed by the Office of Grants and Acquisition Policy and Accountability (OGAPA). TAGGS has been the focal point for HHS’s transparency efforts with financial assistance. Since its inception in 1995, TAGGS has been the central repository for all of HHS’s grants data generated by HHS’s Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs) representing nearly a half million distinct awards and over $4 trillion in programs in HHS’s grants portfolio.

Each year, HHS continues to examine the critical components of HHS’s financial assistance business processes, policies, and systems to strengthen the data available to the public and for internal HHS usage. In addition to collecting, processing, and reporting all financial assistance data awarded by the OPDIVs and STAFFDIVs, TAGGS provides a single system and platform for displaying HHS data in meaningful ways that will be instrumental to informing leadership decisions and meeting legislative requirements including the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act), and the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act.

FY 2017 Grant Awards & Award Dollars

The animated charts in the Overview, Types of Funding, and Agency Totals sections present different views of HHS's grant spending in FY 2017.

Click on a button below to review each chart. Hover over any circle to view detailed information.

Overview: The Overview chart shows the total number of awards and award dollars that HHS issued during FY 2017. This chart also displays by awarding agency: total spending by award dollars and number of awards, percent of total dollars and number of awards compared to all other HHS awarding agencies, and the percent change from FY 2016.

The circle size shows the relative dollar amount. Dark colors indicate a big change from the previous year, light colors reflect a small change.

Types of Funding: The chart shows differences in spending between discretionary and non-discretionary awards. Hover over the the two types of funding to view the definition of each.

Agency Totals: The chart shows discretionary and non-discretionary awards grouped and displayed by awarding agency. Agencies with two circles awarded both types of grants.

Largest Increases
Largest Decreases

Total HHS Award Dollars: $494,280,757,063.

Total HHS Awards:
98,799.

Colors indicate small to large changes from FY 2016 to FY 2017

  • –7%
  • –3%
  • 0
  • +3%
  • +7%

Non-discretionary award

An award made by an HHS awarding agency in keeping with specific statutory authority under which the agency has no ability to exercise judgment (“discretion”), due to “mandatory” award requirements, in selecting the applicant/recipient organization through a competitive process. Non-discretionary awards can be both formula and non-formula based.

Colors indicate small to large changes from FY 2016 to FY 2017.

  • –7%
  • –3%
  • 0
  • +3%
  • +7%

Discretionary award

An award made by an HHS awarding agency in keeping with specific statutory authority which enables the agency to exercise judgment (“discretion”) in selecting the applicant/recipient organization through a competitive award process.

Changes to Discretionary Spending

Color shows amount of change from 2016 to 2017.

  • –7%
  • –3%
  • 0
  • +3%
  • +7%

View Discretionary Table Download Excel File View Non-Discretionary Table Download Non-Discretionary Excel File

HHS 2017 Organization

HHS is comprised of OPDIVs and STAFFDIVs, each with its own unique mission. The organization chart below presents the overall structure of HHS during FY 2017. The OPDIVs/STAFFDIVs are responsible for administering and managing approximately 526 grant programs which are described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). Note that in this report, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry awards are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant funding data.

*Components of the Public Health Service. #Administratively-supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Not all OPDIVs listed on the Organization Chart award grants. To learn more and to find links to home pages and sub-charts, visit the text version of the 2017 HHS Organizational Chart.