[Analytical Perspectives]
[Federal Receipts and Collections]
[4. User Fees and Other Collections]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
In addition to collecting taxes and other governmental receipts by the
exercise of its sovereign powers, the Federal Government earns income
from its various business-type activities. Examples of this income
include the sale of postage stamps and electricity, the collection of
fees for admittance to national parks, premiums for deposit insurance,
and rents and royalties for the right to extract oil from the Outer
Continental shelf. Because these collections stem from business-type
activities, as opposed to exercise of sovereign powers, they are
subtracted from gross outlays rather than added to the taxes and other
governmental receipts discussed in the previous chapter. Because these
collections reduce outlays, they are called ``offsetting collections.''
The purpose of this treatment is to produce budget totals for receipts,
outlays, and budget authority in terms of the amount of resources
allocated governmentally, through collective political choice rather
than through the market.
Offsetting collections are classified into two major categories:
offsetting receipts, which are deposited in receipt accounts; and
offsetting collections credited to appropriations (expenditure)
accounts, which are deposited directly in these accounts and usually can
be spent without further action by the Congress. Both categories include
collections from other accounts within the Government as well as the
public. Chapter 24, ``Budget System and Concepts,'' explains the
budgetary treatment of these collections more fully.
The term ``user fee'' is not a budgetary category. It is a general
term that refers to amounts assessed against identifiable recipients for
special benefits derived from Federal activities beyond those received
by the general public. Depending primarily on whether the user charge is
based on the Government's sovereign power or business-type activity, it
may be classified as a governmental receipt or an offsetting collection.
As shown in Table 4-1, total offsetting collections from the public
(including those proposed in this budget) are estimated to be $190.4
billion in 1997. This is only 13 percent as large as the governmental
receipts discussed in the previous chapter. Table 4-1 divides this total
between offsetting receipts and offsetting collections credited to
appropriations accounts and shows major subcategories of each. Table 4-3
provides more detail for offsetting receipts collected from the public
and offsetting receipts collected from other accounts within the
Government.
Table 4-1. OFFSETTING COLLECTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
(In millions of dollars)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimate
Type 1995 ---------------------
actual 1996 1997
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Collections deposited in receipt accounts:
Medicare premiums............................................................ 20,241 19,842 20,287
Military assistance trust fund property sales................................ 12,469 13,020 12,230
Outer Continental Shelf payments, naval petroleum reserve lease and other
undistributed offsetting receipts........................................... 2,419 4,489 4,098
Spectrum auction proceeds, undistributed..................................... 7,644 4,350 3,600
Sale of property and services, interest income and all other collections
deposited in receipt accounts............................................... 20,343 21,710 20,129
--------------------------------
Subtotal, collections from the public deposited in receipt accounts....... 63,116 63,411 60,344
Collections credited to appropriations accounts:
Postal Service stamp sales and other collections............................. 53,311 55,779 57,724
Deposit insurance funds...................................................... 26,272 16,715 5,483
Tennessee Valley Authority and Power Administration collections.............. 8,956 9,040 9,006
Commodity Credit Corporation loan repayments and other collections........... 10,824 7,257 7,604
Other loan repayments........................................................ 7,028 7,967 7,069
Loan guaranty and other insurance premiums, interest income and all other
collections credited to appropriations accounts............................. 45,335 43,681 43,201
--------------------------------
Subtotal, collections from the public credited to appropriation accounts.. 151,726 140,439 130,087
Offsetting collections from the public....................................... 214,842 203,850 190,431
Offsetting collections from the public excluding off-budget Postal Service
collections................................................................. 161,531 148,071 132,707
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The budget contains a variety of user fee and other collections
proposals that would yield $1.4 billion in 1997 and $11.2 billion from
1997 through 2002. These proposals establish, increase, or extend fees
in order to recover more of the costs of providing government services.
Table 4-2 splits the proposals between discretionary and mandatory
categories for the appropriate scoring under the Budget Enforcement Act
of 1990 (BEA). It includes offsetting collections and user fees
classified as governmental receipts.
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Table 4-2. PROPOSED USER FEES AND OTHER COLLECTIONS
(In millions of dollars)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
User fees
Discretionary:
Department of Agriculture:
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service--
inspection, licensing, and permit fees--Collections
and spending authority............................... 8 8 8 8 8 8
Grain Inspection--Packers and Stockyards
Administration--standardization and licensing
activities: Collections and spending authority....... 18 18 18 18 18 18
Food Safety and Inspection Service--meat, poultry and
eggs overtime inspection fees: Collections and
spending authority................................... 109 109 109 109 109 109
Department of Energy:
Decontamination and decommissioning fee extended to
foreign purchasers of U.S. enrichment services--
Collections.......................................... 46 46 46 46 46 46
Department of Health and Human Services--Food and Drug
Administration:
Import user fee to cover inspection/regulatory
compliance program--Collections and spending
authority............................................ 15 15 15 15 15 15
Medical device review and approval--Collections and
spending authority................................... 24 24 24 24 24 24
Department of Transportation:
Aviation-related user fees--Collections and spending
authority............................................ 150 150 150 150 150 150
Surface Transportation Board--Collections and spending
authority............................................ 15 15 15 15 15 15
Army Corps of Engineers: Wetlands dredging permit
application fees--Collections.......................... 7 7 7 7 7 7
Environmental Protection Agency: Registration fee for
pesticide manufacturers--Collections................... 15 ....... ....... ....... ....... .......
Securities and Exchange Commission: Tier 3 fees credited
to appropriation--Collections and spending authority... 49 49 49 49 49 49
-----------------------------------------------------
Subtotal, discretionary user fees:
Collections.......................................... 456 441 441 441 441 441
Spending authority................................... 388 388 388 388 388 388
Net savings........................................... 68 53 53 53 53 53
Mandatory:
Department of Agriculture: Recover costs for oversight
of marketing agreements and orders--Collections and
spending authority..................................... 10 11 11 11 11 11
Department of Commerce:
Fisheries management program fees--Collections and
spending authority................................... 10 10 10 10 10 10
Patent and Trademark Office surcharges--Collections... ....... ....... 119 119 119 119
Department of Education:
Federal Family Education Loan Program fees:
Secondary market offset fee--Collections and
spending authority................................. 35 35 32 33 34 36
Lender and holder subsidy rebate--Collections and
spending authority................................. 27 24 22 22 23 25
Increase lender origination fee--Collections and
spending authority................................. 45 52 42 40 49 53
Department of the Interior:
Expand authority for Park Service, BLM and Forest
Service fees:
Collections........................................ 12 17 27 33 43 47
Spending authority................................. ....... 11 16 25 31 40
Hetch Hetchy Dam rental payments--Collections......... 1 1 1 1 1 1
Hardrock mining claim and location fee extension--
Collections.......................................... 1 2 34 36 37 38
Department of Transportation:
Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund excise tax--Collections 294 294 296 298 299 300
Railroad safety inspection fees--Collections.......... 47 49 51 53 55 57
Vessel tonnage fees--Collections and spending
authority............................................ ....... ....... ....... 62 62 62
Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
letter ruling fees extension--Collections.............. ....... ....... ....... ....... 31 31
Department of Veterans Affairs: Nonservice-connected
medical copayments and per diems extension--Collections ....... ....... 39 41 42 43
Environmental Protection Agency: Pesticide
reregistration fee--Collections and spending authority. 5 19 19 14 ....... .......
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation/Federal Reserve:
Examination fees for FDIC-insured banks and bank
holding companies:
Bank Insurance Fund--Collections and spending
authority.......................................... 75 79 82 86 89 93
Federal Reserve--Collections\1\..................... 92 96 100 104 109 114
Federal Emergency Management Agency: Fee to cover 100%
of radiological emergency preparedness program--
Collections............................................ 12 12 12 12 12 12
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Nuclear facility fees--
Collections and spending authority..................... ....... ....... 310 310 310 310
Securities and Exchange Commission:
Tier 1 fees--increases in existing fees--
Collections\1\....................................... 47 48 49 50 52 53
Tier 2 fees--new permanent fees deposited in special
fund--Collections and spending authority\1\.......... 260 270 281 292 304 316
-----------------------------------------------------
Subtotal, mandatory user fees:
Collections.......................................... 973 1,019 1,537 1,627 1,692 1,731
Spending authority................................... 467 511 515 595 613 646
Net savings.......................................... 506 508 1,022 1,032 1,079 1,085
=====================================================
Total, user fees:
Collections............................................ 1,429 1,460 1,978 2,068 2,133 2,172
Spending authority..................................... 855 899 903 983 1,001 1,034
Net savings............................................ 574 561 1,075 1,085 1,132 1,138
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\Governmental receipts.
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Discretionary: The following proposed fees are classified as
discretionary because action is required by the Appropriations
Committees. In most cases, the proposed levels are tied to the
appropriations requests for the specific activity.
Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) fees.--The budget
proposes to establish three fees for certain APHIS activities: