Each year the president crafts a budget request for the next fiscal year and submits it to Congress. At that time OMB publishes a wealth of federal budget data – everything from what’s contained in the president’s budget proposal to historic spending by federal agency, detailed estimates of the cost of certain tax policies, and projections about the size of the U.S. economy. These annually-updated numbers are the principal source behind NPP’s federal budget charts.
About Our Budget Categories
When OMB publishes federal budget data, it uses several categories of spending called functions, and within those, subfunctions. While NPP uses 13 different budget categories to sort federal spending, those do not correspond to the official government functions. Rather, they are meant to organize the many government subfunctions into intuitive groupings.
NPP’s budget categories for total federal spending are defined as follows:
Education
Elementary, secondary, higher and vocational education.
Subfunctions: 501, 502, 503
Example programs:
- Pell Grants
- Special Education
- Title I grants to disdadvantaged public schools
Energy & Environment
Natural resources and environment, conservation, and supply and use of energy.
Subfunctions: 271, 272, 274, 276, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306
Example programs:
- Rural Clean Water Program
- Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Environmental Protection Agency
Food & Agriculture
Agriculture as well as nutritional assistance programs.
Subfunctions: 351, 352, 605
Example programs:
- Agriculture Disaster Relief Program
- SNAP (food stamps)
- National School Lunch Program
Government
Law enforcement and the justice system, commerce, overhead costs of the federal government, and undistributed offsetting receipts.
Subfunctions: 372, 373, 376, 751, 752, 753, 754, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 808, 809, 922, 929, 951, 952, 953, 954, 959
Example programs:
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Congressional Budget Office
Housing & Community
Housing assistance and credit, community development, disaster relief, and services supporting social needs.
Subfunctions: 371, 451, 452, 453, 506, 604, 925
Example programs:
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Community Development Block Grants
- Head Start
Interest on Debt
Annual interest paid on the national debt, net of interest income received by assets the federal government owns.
Subfunctions: 901, 902, 903, 908, 909
International Affairs
Diplomatic, development, and humanitarian activities abroad.
Subfunctions: 151, 153, 154, 155
Example programs:
- State Department
- Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
- Peace Corps
Medicare & Health
Health care programs and services, and occupational and consumer health & safety.
Subfunctions: 551, 552, 554, 571, 921, 926
Example programs:
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Military
National defense, nuclear weapons activities, war costs, and international security assistance.
Subfunctions: 051, 053, 054, 152
Example programs:
- Weapons acquisition
- Military operations in Afghanistan
- Army National Guard
Science
General science research and space flight research and activities.
Subfunctions: 251, 252
Example programs:
- NASA
- National Science Foundation
Social Security, Unemployment & Labor
Income security programs, federal employee retirement and disability, and job training.
Subfunctions 504, 505, 601, 602, 603, 609, 651, 923
Example programs:
- Social Security
- Emergency Unemployment Compensation
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Transportation
Development and support of air, water, ground, and other transportation.
Subfunctions: 401, 402, 403, 407
Example programs:
- Highway Traffic Safety Grants
- Grants-in-aid for Airports
- Aviation Security
Veterans Benefits
Health care, housing, education and income security for veterans.
Subfunctions: 701, 702, 703, 704, 705
Example programs:
- Veterans Employment and Training
- Medical and Prosthetic Research
- VA hospitals
Budget Categories for Discretionary and Mandatory Spending and Your Tax Receipt
NPP uses the above categories for total federal spending. The categories differ slightly for charts that represent only certain parts of the federal budget:
Discretionary Spending
When reporting discretionary spending, NPP uses the above categories but excludes spending for mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and many veterans services.
Tax Day and Your Tax Receipt
When reporting how your income tax dollar was spent, NPP uses the above categories but excludes money spent out of trust funds and reports only spending out of federal funds.
Mandatory Spending
When reporting mandatory spending, NPP excludes spending for discretionary programs like education and the military and displays spending within the following five categories that are described above: Food & Agriculture; Medicare & Health; Social Security, Unemployment, & Labor; Transportation; and Veterans Benefits.
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