FPDS Query Library
About Us
Contact Us

Interagency Contracting Authority Description

Human-readable description associated with the coded Interagency Contracting Authority value in the IDV legislative mandates section. It provides the text label for the authority cited, such as a statutory basis or similar designation.

Family: IDV
Category: Legislative Mandates
Data Type: string
Semantic Type: description
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description
Title
Interagency Contracting Authority Description
FPDS Path
IDV/legislativeMandates/interagencyContractingAuthority/description
Description
Human-readable description associated with the coded Interagency Contracting Authority value in the IDV legislative mandates section. It provides the text label for the authority cited, such as a statutory basis or similar designation.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts interpret the legal basis for interagency contracting actions without relying only on coded source values. It supports review of procurement authority, compliance, and cross-agency contracting patterns in IDV records.
Example Value
OTHER STATUTORY AUTHORITY
Observed Non-Null Count
5,862,044

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description
FPDS XML Path
IDV/legislativeMandates/interagencyContractingAuthority/description
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'IDV/legislativeMandates/interagencyContractingAuthority/description' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building

Common Usage

  • Identify the stated legal authority for an interagency contract
  • Validate or interpret coded authority fields in FPDS extracts
  • Group obligations by authority description for compliance analysis

Common Mistakes

  • Using the description as if it were the authoritative code value
  • Counting distinct text labels without reconciling equivalent code meanings

Query Guidance

Use this field for display, filtering, or validating the coded authority field, but join or group on the paired code when possible. In SQL, normalize text only after confirming the underlying code/value mapping, and use the description to label results rather than to define categories.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description AS interagency_contracting_authority_description
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

SELECT
    content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description AS value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__IDV__legislativeMandates__interagencyContractingAuthority__description IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY value
ORDER BY record_count DESC
LIMIT 25

Each dictionary item includes SQL-ready examples generated alongside the variable metadata, allowing immediate use in FPDS Query for filtering, aggregation, and analysis.