For example, a Congressional appropriation to HUD may in the fine print include authorization for community-based consumer education on housing choices. Federal housing money then might be dispensed as grants and contracts to local governments, their housing agencies, and to non-profit organizations that in turn hire may hire other organizations to do the actual work.
In that manner, booklets get distributed and classes advertised and held in libraries, the YMCA, and in other community meeting places on how to apply for a mortgage and get the best terms. Yet finding out in full how much is spent for such purposes and who is ultimately getting the money is nearly impossible for the general public.
Notably, ACORN grew large, rich, and powerful by researching and getting such grants and gradually accumulating large sums as administrative and supervisory expenses, with slices up-streamed into affiliated profit-making entities that paid earnings to ACORN’s founder and his key lieutenants. When attention was directed at ACORN after the scandals broke, the full extent of the operation staggered even government experts because ACORN used hundreds of subsidiaries and affiliates and took advantage of the weakness of federal auditing and accounting to hide the extent and nature of what they were doing.
If you intend to try to pursue this, my advice is to narrow your research scope to a specific federal department, agency, or program and then get a handle on their accounting and database system for grants and contracts. That means Internet searches, library research, and calls to the pertinent Congressional committees.
With an understanding of one federal unit, you could research others. You may eventually find that you have enough for a dissertation or a book.
I think that USASPENDING is a good place to start. I know what you mean about using different groups and organizations to vacuum up tax dollars. What started me on this search was how many left wing groups get grants for “education”. To me that is the ultimate rip off. The Politician gets to claim he is helping the poor or minorities with say “job training”. He sends a grant to friends or family who at worst case gets homeless people to sign off on training. The money is now gone with no measurable outcome.
This is different from a government contract for real work that must be produced. Unless you get a $100.000 grant for $80,000 in work that is subbed out. That would be really hard to track.