DAIMS

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) mandated the collection and publication of data on federal spending in great detail, requiring new standards to make it possible to use and analyze that data effectively. The result was a set of government-wide data standards known as the DATA Act Information Model Schema (DAIMS).

The DAIMS, which was developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury with input from federal agencies and the public, informs how the government should select and organize information on federal spending to submit for online publication; what information is stored and how different types of information are related to each other; and how users can access and interpret this information.

The DAIMS now contains more than 400 data elements, and is unique in covering diverse business functions including budget, accounting, grants, insurance and loans. Federal agencies use the DATA Act Broker to upload their financial data and validate it against the DAIMS.

Notably, the DAIMS provides an important foundation for linking federal spending data with other data sets, such as performance data and economic data, to improve government efficiency and effectiveness.