18F/development-guide

where to find a list of agencies

afeld opened this issue · 7 comments

afeld commented

Background information

This seemingly simple question comes up every once in a while — would be useful to speak to where to find definitions/list(s).

Implementation step

  • Determine what is authoritative source

Acceptance criteria

  • TTS has / points to written guidance on how to define and how to get a machine-readable list of agencies (for drop-downs in forms, etc.)

There's a thing that SAM.gov maintains called the Federal Hierarchy, which AFAIK is pretty much canonical. https://beta.sam.gov/help/federal-hierarchy

Email sent to Charlene Blanco from USAGov program to hopefully provide some insight/details.

Follow up email sent - awaiting response from Charlene. Moving to awaiting feedback list

As per Russell O'Neill - QQBC from USAGov program, the authoritative source representing info presented on USAGov:

https://usagov.platform.gsa.gov/usaapi/api/v1/usagov/directory_records/federal.json

@afeld I couldn't find an appropriate section in the TTS Handbook to update, so instead I created a reference doc that you can share (or retrofit in the handbook).

Feel free to update/modify as you see fit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1za-yxSzjYehqf3CxkA7yssJ5fTSOv5BXo3B1jid-Szs/edit#heading=h.f1halm19z9v

(Acceptance Criteria Met: Closing issue)