    [Budget of the U.S. Government]
    [VI. Investing in the Common Good: The Major Functions of the Federal Government]
    [30. Undistributed Offsetting Receipts]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 215]]

                     30.  UNDISTRIBUTED OFFSETTING RECEIPTS

      ----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                     Table 30-1.  UNDISTRIBUTED OFFSETTING RECEIPTS
                                                (In millions of dollars)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                Estimate
                Function 950                1996   -----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Actual      1997       1998       1999       2000       2001       2002
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Spending:
      Mandatory Outlays:
        Existing law...................    -37,620    -46,487    -52,869    -41,127    -41,610    -43,174    -45,283
        Proposed legislation...........  .........  .........     -2,721     -2,404     -4,388     -6,877    -22,667
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      ----------------------------------------------------------------------
       Offsetting receipts, totaling $52.9 billion in 1998, fall into two
    categories: (1) the Government's receipts from performing business-like
    activities, such as proceeds from the sale of postage stamps or a
    Federal asset, and (2) the amounts that the Government shifts from one
    account to another, such as agency payments to retirement funds.

     Rents and Royalties on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)

       The Interior Department's Outer Continental Shelf Lands leasing
    program, which began in 1954, generates 15 percent and 24 percent of
    U.S. domestic oil and natural gas production, respectively. Since the
    program began, it has held 120 lease sales, covering areas three to 200
    miles offshore and generating over $110 billion in rents, bonuses, and
    royalties--mainly for the Treasury.
       OCS revenues help to reduce the deficit, but they also provide most
    funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and Historic
    Preservation Fund programs. The OCS program will generate about $4
    billion in receipts in 1997. In 1998, the Administration will continue
    the leasing moratoria for the environmentally sensitive areas--offshore
    California, Oregon, and Washington; the Eastern Seaboard; the
    southwestern coastline of Florida, including the Everglades; and certain
    parts of Alaska.

     Asset Sales

       The United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC): USEC, which began
    operations in July 1993, sells enriched uranium globally to utilities as
    fuel for nuclear power plants. Congress created USEC as a wholly-owned
    government corporation--the first step in a series of actions designed
    to lead to privatization. USEC's sale, now planned for 1998, will raise
    an estimated $1.8 billion.
       Elk Hills: The Defense Authorization Act of 1996 requires the sale of
    Naval Petroleum Reserve 1 in California (commonly known as Elk Hills) by
    February 10, 1998. As a result, the budget assumes that the Government
    will receive $2.4 billion in sale proceeds in 1998. The Government is
    privatizing Elk Hills because the private, rather than public, sector
    should perform commercial oil and gas operations.
       Alaska Power Administration: The Administration plans to focus on
    completing the sale of the power plants at Anchorage and Juneau to
    current customers, as authorized under a 1995 law. The sale, which will
    raise an estimated $85 million for the Federal Government, is scheduled
    for completion by August 1998.

    [[Page 216]]

     Employee Retirement

       Federal agencies will pay an estimated $35.5 billion on behalf of
    their employees in 1998 to the Federal retirement funds,\1\ the Medicare
    health insurance trust fund, and the Social Security trust funds. As the
    Federal Government raises the pay of civilian employees, agencies must
    make commensurate increases in their payments to recognize the increased
    cost of retirement.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
      \1\ The major funds are the Military Retirement Funds, the Civil
    Service Retirement System, and the Federal Employee Retirement System.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Other Undistributed Offsetting Receipts

       The President and Congress gave the Federal Communications Commission
    authority in 1993 to auction spectrum licenses, rather than give them
    away. These auctions have been extraordinarily successful, raising $23
    billion to date and cutting the time to award a license by 90 percent in
    some cases.