The Homeland Security Spending Trail: How to Follow the Money Through U.S. Government Databases

This guide was co-written by Andrew Zuker with support from the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The U.S. government publishes volumes of detailed data on the money it spends, but searching through it and finding information can be challenging. Complex search functions and poor user interfaces on government reporting sites can hamper an investigation, as can inconsistent company profiles and complex corporate ownership structures. This week, EFF and the Heinrich Boell Foundation released an update to our database of vendors providing technology to components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protections (CBP). It includes new vendor profiles, new fields, and updated data on top contractors, so that journalists and researchers have a jumping-off point for their own investigations. Access the dataset through Google Sheets (Google's Privacy Policy applies) or download the Excel file here. This time we