[Analytical Perspectives]
[Outlays to the Public]
[26. Outlays to the Public]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                                     

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                          OUTLAYS TO THE PUBLIC

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                       26.  OUTLAYS TO THE PUBLIC
 
 Table 26-1 presents supplementary information on the total amount of 
Federal Government outlays, including outlays that are offset by 
collections from the public. The budget generally presents outlays net 
of offsetting collections, which understates total Federal budget 
transactions with the public by up to 15 percent, particularly in the 
Department of Agriculture, Funds Appropriated to the President, the 
Postal Service, and the Federal Deposit Insurance and Resolution Trust 
Corporations. Therefore, the table in this chapter presents both 
measures of outlays.

  Normal Budget Presentation of Receipts and Outlays. The receipts and 
outlays in the budget are normally presented as recommended by the 
President's Commission on Budget Concepts in 1967. The Commission 
concluded that, for most purposes, the relative size of the Federal 
government in the national economy is most appropriately disclosed when 
amounts received from the public from business-like or market-oriented 
activities are offset against the expenditures to which they relate, 
while taxes and other collections representing the exercise of sovereign 
or regulatory powers unique to government are stated as governmental 
receipts, which do not offset specific expenditures. The budget amounts 
would thereby be a rough measure of the volume of economic activity 
allocated by the Federal Government through collective political choice, 
rather than through the standard that the use of services requires 
payment of a price. Examples of offsetting collections from the public 
for business-like or market-oriented activities are the amounts 
collected from the sale of postage stamps, timber, minerals and mineral 
products, and rental payments collected for use of Federal lands. 
Offsetting collections representing intragovernmental payments and 
transfers are also offset against outlays to avoid double counting when 
spending by all Federal accounts is aggregated.
  Table 26-1 is arranged in four columns of data for each fiscal year, 
1986 to 1997. Columns two and three of Table 26-1 are described in more 
detail below.

  Offsetting Collections in Expenditure Accounts. For the past decade, 
70 to 80 percent of the offsetting collections from the public have been 
authorized to be credited to expenditure accounts, particularly public 
enterprise revolving fund accounts. These amounts are usually authorized 
by law to be spent without further action by Congress, although there 
are occasionally legal limitations on the amounts that can be spent. 
Amounts credited to expenditure accounts offset the budget authority and 
outlays of the agency to which the account belongs.
  In recent years, offsetting collections credited to the public 
enterprise revolving fund of the Postal Service have accounted for a 
quarter to a third of the total. The amount estimated to be collected in 
1997 is $57.7 billion. Agriculture has the second largest offsetting 
collections credited to its expenditure accounts. The bulk of the 
collections consists of loan repayments, interest, and other collections 
for farm credit programs. In 1997 the amount estimated to be credited is 
$16.9 billion. Of this amount: