[Analytical Perspectives]
[Dimensions of the Budget]
[23. Off-Budget Federal Entities and Non-Budgetary Activities]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]



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      23.  OFF-BUDGET FEDERAL ENTITIES AND NON-BUDGETARY ACTIVITIES

  The unified budget of the Federal Government is divided by law between 
on-budget and off-budget entities. The off-budget Federal entities 
conduct programs that result in the same kind of spending and receipts 
as on-budget entities. Despite its off-budget classification, this 
spending channels economic resources toward particular uses in the same 
way as on-budget spending. Off-budget spending and receipts are 
discussed in the following section on off-budget Federal entities.
  The budget is a financial plan for proposing, deciding, and 
controlling the allocation of resources by the Federal Government. It 
does not include activities that are related to the Federal Government 
but that are non-budgetary by their inherent nature. In some cases this 
is because the activities are not conducted by the Government, such as 
the financial intermediation provided by the Government-sponsored 
enterprises; or because they involve funds that are privately owned, 
such as the deposit funds owned by Indian tribes and managed on their 
behalf by the Government in a fiduciary capacity. In other cases this is 
because the activities are not costs to the Government itself, such as 
regulation. Nevertheless, some of these activities are important 
instruments of Federal policy. Some are discussed in the budget 
documents, and in certain cases the amounts involved are presented in 
conjunction with budget data. They are discussed in the section of this 
chapter on non-budgetary activities.

                                      TABLE 23-1.  COMPARISON OF TOTAL, ON-BUDGET, AND OFF-BUDGET TRANSACTIONS \1\
                                                                (In billions of dollars)
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                                                                    Receipts                        Outlays                   Surplus or deficit (-)
                                                        ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Fiscal Year                                                Off-                             Off-                             Off-
                                                          Total   On-budget    budget     Total    On-budget    budget     Total    On-budget    budget
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1975...................................................    279.1      216.6       62.5      332.3      270.8       61.6      -53.2      -54.1        0.9
1976...................................................    298.1      231.7       66.4      371.8      301.1       70.7      -73.7      -69.4       -4.3
TQ.....................................................     81.2       63.2       18.0       96.0       77.3       18.7      -14.7      -14.1       -0.7
1977...................................................    355.6      278.7       76.8      409.2      328.7       80.5      -53.7      -49.9       -3.7
1978...................................................    399.6      314.2       85.4      458.7      369.6       89.2      -59.2      -55.4       -3.8
1979...................................................    463.3      365.3       98.0      504.0      404.9       99.1      -40.7      -39.6       -1.1
 
1980...................................................    517.1      403.9      113.2      590.9      477.0      113.9      -73.8      -73.1       -0.7
1981...................................................    599.3      469.1      130.2      678.2      543.0      135.3      -79.0      -73.9       -5.1
1982...................................................    617.8      474.3      143.5      745.7      594.9      150.9     -128.0     -120.6       -7.4
1983...................................................    600.6      453.2      147.3      808.4      660.9      147.4     -207.8     -207.7       -0.1
1984...................................................    666.5      500.4      166.1      851.9      685.7      166.2     -185.4     -185.3       -0.1
 
1985...................................................    734.1      547.9      186.2      946.4      769.4      176.9     -212.3     -221.5        9.2
1986...................................................    769.2      569.0      200.2      990.4      806.9      183.5     -221.2     -237.9       16.7
1987...................................................    854.4      641.0      213.4    1,004.1      809.3      194.8     -149.7     -168.4       18.6
1988...................................................    909.3      667.8      241.5    1,064.5      860.1      204.4     -155.2     -192.3       37.1
1989...................................................    991.2      727.5      263.7    1,143.8      932.9      210.9     -152.6     -205.4       52.8
 
1990...................................................  1,032.0      750.3      281.7    1,253.1    1,028.1      225.1     -221.1     -277.7       56.6
1991...................................................  1,055.0      761.2      293.9    1,324.3    1,082.6      241.7     -269.3     -321.5       52.2
1992...................................................  1,091.3      788.9      302.4    1,381.6    1,129.3      252.3     -290.3     -340.4       50.1
1993...................................................  1,154.4      842.5      311.9    1,409.5    1,142.9      266.6     -255.1     -300.4       45.3
1994...................................................  1,258.6      923.6      335.0    1,461.9    1,182.5      279.4     -203.2     -258.9       55.7
 
1995...................................................  1,351.8    1,000.8      351.1    1,515.8    1,227.2      288.7     -164.0     -226.4       62.4
1996...................................................  1,453.1    1,085.6      367.5    1,560.5    1,259.6      300.9     -107.5     -174.1       66.6
1997...................................................  1,579.3    1,187.3      392.0    1,601.2    1,290.6      310.6      -21.9     -103.3       81.4
1998...................................................  1,721.8    1,306.0      415.8    1,652.6    1,336.0      316.6       69.2      -30.0       99.2
1999...................................................  1,827.5    1,383.0      444.5    1,701.9    1,381.1      320.8      125.5        1.9      123.7
 
2000...................................................  2,025.2    1,544.6      480.6    1,789.1    1,458.3      330.8      236.2       86.3      149.8
2001...................................................  1,991.2    1,483.7      507.5    1,863.0    1,516.2      346.8      128.2      -32.5      160.7
2002...................................................  1,853.2    1,337.9      515.3    2,011.0    1,655.3      355.7     -157.8     -317.5      159.7
2003...................................................  1,782.3    1,258.5      523.8    2,159.9    1,796.9      363.0     -377.6     -538.4      160.8
2004...................................................  1,880.1    1,345.3      534.7    2,292.2    1,912.7      379.5     -412.1     -567.4      155.2
 
2005 estimate..........................................  2,052.8    1,491.5      561.4    2,479.4    2,080.0      399.4     -426.6     -588.5      162.0
2006 estimate..........................................  2,177.6    1,584.4      593.2    2,567.6    2,144.3      423.3     -390.1     -559.9      169.9
2007 estimate..........................................  2,344.2    1,715.0      629.2    2,656.3    2,221.4      434.9     -312.1     -506.4      194.3
2008 estimate..........................................  2,507.0    1,842.5      664.6    2,757.8    2,308.1      449.8     -250.8     -465.6      214.8
2009 estimate..........................................  2,650.0    1,949.3      700.7    2,882.9    2,412.3      470.6     -232.9     -463.0      230.1
 
2010 estimate..........................................  2,820.9    2,077.7      743.2    3,028.2    2,537.3      490.9     -207.3     -459.6      252.3
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\1\ Off-budget transactions consist of the social security trust funds and the Postal Service fund for all years.


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                       Off-Budget Federal Entities

  The Federal Government has used the unified budget concept as the 
foundation for its budgetary analysis and presentation since the 1969 
budget. This concept was developed by the President's Commission on 
Budget Concepts in 1967. It calls for the budget to include all the 
Federal Government's programs and all the fiscal transactions of these 
programs with the public.
  Every year since 1971, however, at least one Federal entity has been 
off-budget. Off-budget Federal entities are federally owned and 
controlled, but their transactions are excluded from the on-budget 
totals by law. When a Federal entity is off-budget, its receipts, 
outlays, and surplus or deficit are not included in the on-budget 
receipts, outlays, and surplus or deficit; and its budget authority is 
not included in the total budget authority for the on-budget Federal 
entities. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 excluded off-budget 
entities from general enforcement provisions (except for the 
administrative expenses of Social Security), although it had special 
enforcement provisions for Social Security.
  The off-budget Federal entities conduct programs of the same type as 
the on-budget entities. Most of the tables in the budget documents 
include the on-budget and off-budget amounts both separately and in 
combination, or show them only as a total amount, in order to arrive at 
the unified budget totals that show Federal outlays and receipts 
comprehensively.
  The off-budget Federal entities currently consist of the two Social 
Security trust funds, old-age and survivors insurance and disability 
insurance, and the Postal Service fund. Social Security was classified 
off-budget as of 1986 and the much smaller Postal Service fund in 1989. 
A number of other entities were off-budget at different times before 
1986 but were classified on-budget by law in 1985 or earlier.
  The preceding table divides the total Federal Government receipts, 
outlays, and surplus or deficit between the on-budget and off-budget 
amounts. Within this table the Social Security and Postal Service 
transactions are classified as off-budget for all years, in order to 
provide consistent comparison over time. Entities that were off-budget 
at one time but are now on-budget are classified as on-budget for all 
years.
  The off-budget entities are a significant part of total Federal 
spending and receipts. In 2006, the off-budget receipts are an estimated 
27 percent of total receipts, and the off-budget outlays are a somewhat 
smaller percentage of the total. The estimated unified budget deficit in 
that year is $390 billion--a $560 billion on-budget deficit partly 
offset by a $170 billion off-budget surplus. The off-budget surplus is 
virtually the same as the Social Security surplus. Social Security had a 
deficit in the latter 1970s and early 1980s, but since the middle 1980s 
it has had a large and growing surplus. This surplus is expected to 
continue to grow throughout the period of this table and for some years 
thereafter. However, it is estimated to subsequently decline, turn into 
a deficit, and never reach balance again under present law. The long-
term challenge of Social Security is addressed in a chapter of the main 
budget volume, ``The Nation's Fiscal Outlook,'' and in chapter 13 of 
this volume, ``Stewardship.''

                        Non-Budgetary Activities

  Federal credit: budgetary and non-budgetary transactions.--The Federal 
Credit Reform Act of 1990 refined budget concepts by distinguishing 
between the costs of credit programs, which are budgetary in nature, and 
the other transactions of credit programs, which are not. For 1992 and 
subsequent years, the costs of direct loans and loan guarantees are 
calculated as the present value of estimated cash outflows from the 
Government less the present value of estimated cash inflows to the 
Government. These costs are equivalent to the outlays of other Federal 
programs and are included in the budget as outlays of credit program 
accounts when the Federal Government makes a direct loan or guarantees a 
private loan.
  The complete cash transactions with the public--the disbursement and 
repayment of loans, the payment of default claims on guarantees, the 
collection of interest and fees, and so forth--are recorded in separate 
financing accounts. The financing accounts also receive payments from 
the credit program accounts for the costs of direct loans and loan 
guarantees. The net transactions of the financing accounts--i.e., the 
cash transactions with the public less the amounts received from the 
program accounts--are not costs to the Government. Therefore, the net 
transactions of the financing accounts are non-budgetary in concept, and 
the Act excludes them from the budget.\1\ Because they are non-budgetary 
in concept, they are not classified as off-budget Federal entities. 
Transactions in the financing accounts do affect the Government's 
borrowing requirement, as explained in chapter 16 of this volume, 
``Federal Borrowing and Debt.''
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  \1\ See sec. 505(b) of the Act.
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  The budget outlays of credit programs thus measure the cost of 
Government credit decisions, and they record this cost when the credit 
assistance is provided. This enables the budget to more effectively 
fulfill its purpose of being a financial plan for allocating resources 
among alternative uses: comparing the cost of a program with its 
benefits, comparing the cost of credit programs with the cost of other 
spending programs, and comparing the cost of one type of credit 
assistance with the cost of another type.\2\
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  \2\ For more explanation of the budget concepts for direct loans and 
loan guarantees, see the sections on Federal credit and credit financing 
accounts in chapter 26 of this volume, ``The Budget System and 
Concepts.'' The structure of credit reform is further explained in 
chapter VIII.A of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal 
Year 1992, Part Two, pp. 223-26. The implementation of credit reform 
through 1995 is reviewed in chapter 8, ``Underwriting Federal Credit and 
Insurance,'' Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States 
Government, Fiscal Year 1997, pp. 142-44. Refinements and 
simplifications enacted by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or provided 
by later OMB guidance are explained in chapter 9, ``Underwriting Federal 
Credit and Insurance,'' Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United 
States Government, Fiscal Year 1999, p. 170.
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  Credit programs are discussed in chapter 7 of this volume, ``Credit 
and Insurance.''

  Deposit funds.--Deposit funds are non-budgetary accounts that record 
amounts held by the Government

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temporarily until ownership is determined (such as earnest money paid by 
bidders for mineral leases) or held by the Government as an agent for 
others (such as state income taxes withheld from Federal employees' 
salaries and not yet paid to the states). The largest deposit fund is 
the Thrift Savings Fund, which holds stocks and bonds as an agent for 
Federal employees who participate in the Thrift Savings Plan, a defined 
contribution retirement plan. Because these assets are the property of 
the employees and are held by the Government in a fiduciary capacity, 
the transactions of the fund are not transactions of the Government 
itself and therefore are non-budgetary in concept. The administrative 
costs and the transactions of budgetary accounts with the fund are 
included in the budget. For similar reasons, the budget excludes funds 
that are owned by Indian tribes and held and managed by the Government 
in a fiduciary capacity on the tribes' behalf. Deposit funds are further 
discussed in a section of chapter 26 of this volume, ``The Budget System 
and Concepts.''
  Taxation and tax expenditures.--Taxation provides the Government with 
income, which is included in the budget as ``receipts,'' and which 
withdraws purchasing power from the private sector to finance Government 
expenditures. In addition to this primary economic effect, taxation has 
important effects on the incentives that affect the allocation of 
resources among private uses and the distribution of income among 
individuals. These effects depend on the composition of the Federal tax 
system and the rates and other structural characteristics of each 
Federal tax. The latter effects of taxation on resource allocation and 
income distribution are in many ways analogous to the effects of 
outlays, but these effects are not recorded as budget outlays nor are 
they measured by budget receipts.
  Some of the effects of taxes on resource allocation and income 
distribution, but not all, arise from special exclusions, exemptions, 
deductions, and similar provisions that are identified by comparing the 
tax law with a baseline. Revenue losses caused by these special 
provisions are defined as ``tax expenditures'' and are discussed in 
chapter 19 of this volume, ``Tax Expenditures.'' The chapter includes 
tables with estimates for tax expenditures associated with the 
individual and corporation income taxes. The chapter also compares tax 
expenditures with spending programs and regulation as alternative 
methods for achieving policy objectives, and it provides an illustrative 
overview of performance measures that might be used to evaluate tax 
expenditures.
  The baseline concepts used to identify and measure tax expenditures in 
chapter 19 have important ambiguities. Although partly patterned on a 
comprehensive income tax, they are subjective, as explained in the tax 
expenditure chapter in recent years, and are open to question in a 
number of respects. The Treasury Department has therefore begun to 
review the tax expenditure presentation. The appendix to chapter 19 
provides a review, focusing on three issues: (1) using a comprehensive 
income tax as a baseline, (2) using a comprehensive consumption tax as a 
baseline, and (3) defining negative tax expenditures (i.e., provisions 
that cause people to pay more tax than they would under a baseline--such 
as the failure to adjust interest, capital gains, and depreciation for 
inflation in comparison to a comprehensive income tax).

  Government-sponsored enterprises.--The Federal Government has 
established several Government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie 
Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Farm Credit Banks, to provide financial 
intermediation for specified public purposes. They are excluded from the 
budget because they are privately owned and controlled. However, 
primarily because they were established by the Federal Government for 
public-policy purposes, estimates of their activities are reported in a 
separate chapter of the budget Appendix, and their activities are 
analyzed in chapter 7 of this volume, ``Credit and Insurance.''
  Regulation.--Some types of regulation have economic effects that are 
similar to budget outlays or tax expenditures by requiring the private 
sector to make expenditures for specified purposes, such as safety and 
pollution control. The regulatory planning process is described annually 
in The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and 
Deregulatory Actions.\3\
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  \3\ The most recent publication was issued by the Regulatory 
Information Service Center in December 2004 and printed in the Federal 
Register of December 13, 2004 (vol. 69, no. 238).
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  The Office of Management and Budget began to publish a report on the 
costs and benefits of Federal regulation in 1997. The latest report, 
Progress in Regulatory Reform, was released in December 2004 and also 
includes a report on unfunded mandates.\4\ The report estimates the 
total costs and benefits of major Federal regulations reviewed by OMB 
from October 1993 through September 2003 and the impact of Federal 
regulation on state, local, and tribal governments. It also reviews the 
international literature on the effects of regulation on national 
economic growth and performance, reviews the economic literature on the 
impacts of regulation on manufacturing, and summarizes the 
Administration's regulatory reform accomplishments. The draft of the 
2005 report will be published in February 2005 for public comment.
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  \4\ Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget, Progress in Regulatory Reform: 2003 Report to Congress on 
the Costs and Benefits of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on 
State, Local, and Tribal Entities (2004).