Budget Issues: Fiscal Year 1996 Agency Spending by Budget Function
(Letter Report, 05/13/97, GAO/AIMD-97-95).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal
spending by budget function and subfunction for fiscal year 1996.

GAO noted that: (1) most federal departments and agencies address more
than one mission area; in fact, most made obligations in 1996 to three
or more budget functions; (2) if the analysis is continued to
subdepartments and subfunctions, the picture is often more complex; (3)
for example, the Department of Health and Human Services has about a
dozen subdepartments addressing eight missions ranging from Health Care
Services to Training and Employment; (4) the Department of the Interior
has over a dozen subdepartments addressing 11 missions ranging from
Recreational Resources to General Purpose Fiscal Assistance to
Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education; (5) focusing on the
missions of government, rather than federal organizations, produces a
similarly intricate picture; (6) excluding Social Security, Medicare,
and Net interest, 6 of the remaining 15 budget functions are addressed
by six or more executive branch departments and major agencies; (7) for
example, seven major federal organizations made obligations in 1996 to
the Natural Resources and Environment mission area and seven to
community and Regional Development; (8) lastly, in nominal dollar terms,
the significance of a department to a mission area, or of a mission area
to a department, varies considerably; (9) spending for the
Transportation mission area, for example, is almost entirely within the
Department of Transportation, which is also associated with that mission
area almost exclusively; (10) however, the Department of Agriculture,
with nearly two dozen subdepartments addressing 16 different
subfunctions, presents a different picture; (11) the Department is
responsible for almost all spending in the Agriculture function, but
half of the Department's obligations are associated with a different
function and subfunction (Food and Nutrition Assistance within Income
Security); (12) the function classifications can in some cases aggregate
very different activities; (13) a specific function or subfunction may
not fully encompass a set of logically related activities; (14)
subfunctions are based on a variety of organizing themes; (15) some are
based on divisible segments of broad mission areas, some on a set of
related activities, and some on common functions; and (16) although each
federal activity is placed in a function that best defines its most
important purpose, there is discretion when coding an individual budget*

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  AIMD-97-95
     TITLE:  Budget Issues: Fiscal Year 1996 Agency Spending by Budget 
             Function
      DATE:  05/13/97
   SUBJECT:  Budget functions
             Federal agencies
             Agency missions
             Budget obligations
             Mission budgeting
             Identification codes

             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Report to the Honorable
Richard K.  Armey, Majority Leader, House of Representatives

May 1997

BUDGET ISSUES - FISCAL YEAR 1996
AGENCY SPENDING BY BUDGET FUNCTION

GAO/AIMD-97-95

Fiscal Year 1996 Spending

(935232)


Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  DOC - Department of Commerce
  DOD - Department of Defense
  DOE - Department of Energy
  DOI - Department of the Interior
  DOJ - Department of Justice
  DOL - Department of Labor
  DOS - Department of State
  DOT - Department of Transportation
  EOP - Executive Office of the President
  EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
  FAP - Funds Appropriated to the President
  GSA - General Services Administration
  HHS - Department of Health and Human Services
  HUD - Department of Housing and Urban Development
  NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  OPM - Office of Personnel Management
  SBA - Small Business Administration
  USDA - Department of Agriculture
  VA - Department of Veterans Affairs

Letter
=============================================================== LETTER


B-276984

May 13, 1997

The Honorable Richard K.  Armey
Majority Leader
House of Representatives

Dear Mr.  Armey: 

This report responds to your office's request for information on
federal spending by budget function and subfunction for fiscal year
1996.  In the following appendixes, we display agency spending in
terms of gross obligations\1 reported against the broad federal
mission areas described by budget function classifications.  As we
have suggested in previous products and testimony,\2

examining patterns of spending according to budget functions provides
a starting point for discussions of government restructuring and can
be useful in identifying possible program overlap by focusing on
which federal agencies are associated with which federal mission
areas. 

Appendix I provides a brief description of each budget function and
subfunction.  Appendix II provides a series of tables that classify
department and agency spending by subdepartment\3 and by subfunction;
appendix III summarizes spending for each budget function and
subfunction by federal departments and subdepartments.  We compiled
the information presented in appendixes II and III from automated
information collected and maintained by the Office of Management and
Budget as part of its process to develop the President's fiscal year
1998 budget.  We did not independently verify reported data, although
we did reconcile total obligations for departments and agencies to
published sources. 

Appendixes II and III provide first-level observations on who does
what within the enormous complexity of federal missions and
organizations.  This perspective can be augmented by linking these
department and subdepartment summaries to the account-level detail
provided in our recent product, Compendium of Budget Accounts: 
Fiscal Year 1998 (GAO/AIMD-97-65, April 1997).  And, for additional
detail, the budget account summaries in the compendium can be further
linked to the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year
1998 - Appendix, and to agency budget justifications provided to the
Congress.  In this manner, a reader can "drill down" as needed to
inquire into any particular spending pattern within any function,
subfunction, or agency. 

The budget function classification system provides a comprehensive
and consistent means to capture federal spending according to area of
national need.  Because of this, budget functions are the categories
used by the Congress in its concurrent resolution on the budget and
will likely be the classification system used to summarize federal
spending in governmentwide financial statements, which are required
by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (as expanded by the
Government Management Reform Act of 1994), and in the February 1998
governmentwide performance plan, which is required by the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993.  Some of the patterns disclosed
by arraying spending by function include the following. 

  Most federal departments and agencies address more than one mission
     area; in fact, most made obligations in 1996 to three or more
     budget functions.  If the analysis is continued to
     subdepartments and subfunctions, the picture is often more
     complex.  For example, the Department of Health and Human
     Services has about a dozen subdepartments addressing eight
     missions ranging from Health Care Services to Training and
     Employment.  The Department of the Interior has over a dozen
     subdepartments addressing 11 missions ranging from Recreational
     Resources to General Purpose Fiscal Assistance to Elementary,
     Secondary and Vocational Education. 

  Focusing on the missions of government, rather than federal
     organizations, produces a similarly intricate picture. 
     Excluding Social Security, Medicare, and Net Interest, 6 of the
     remaining 15 budget functions are addressed by six or more
     executive branch departments and major agencies.  For example,
     seven major federal organizations made obligations in 1996 to
     the Natural Resources and Environment mission area and seven to
     Community and Regional Development. 

  Lastly, in nominal dollar terms, the significance of a department
     to a mission area, or of a mission area to a department, varies
     considerably.  Spending for the Transportation mission area, for
     example, is almost entirely within the Department of
     Transportation, which is also associated with that mission area
     almost exclusively.  However, the Department of Agriculture,
     with nearly two dozen subdepartments addressing 16 different
     subfunctions, presents a different picture.  The Department is
     responsible for almost all spending in the Agriculture function,
     but half of the Department's obligations are associated with a
     different function and subfunction (Food and Nutrition
     Assistance within Income Security). 

Care must be exercised in drawing specific conclusions from the
information contained in the enclosed tables.  All of these data are
reported as part of the annual executive budget formulation process;
none of the data are audited.  Additional limitations to note include
the following. 

  The function classifications can in some cases aggregate very
     different activities.  For example, the Income Security function
     involves 15 federal organizations, but these organizations are
     not all dealing with the same type of "Income Security." Income
     Security actually involves three broad subfunctions:  (1)
     retirement and disability, addressed by nine different federal
     entities, many of which administer separate employee pension
     programs; (2) cash assistance, provided by five federal
     organizations; and (3) housing, food, and nutrition assistance
     programs, concentrated in two major departments spread across
     seven components with some small participation by two
     independent agencies. 

  A specific function or subfunction may not fully encompass a set of
     logically related activities.  For example, the Commerce and
     Housing Credit function does not include the Housing Assistance
     subfunction, which is in Income Security.  Similarly, the Income
     Security function does not include, for example, Social Security
     or Income Security for Veterans. 

  Subfunctions are based on a variety of organizing themes.  Some are
     based on divisible segments of broad mission areas (e.g., Water
     Transportation), some on a set of related activities (e.g.,
     Health Care Services), and some on common functions (e.g.,
     Central Fiscal Operations). 

  Although each federal activity is placed in a function that best
     defines its most important purpose, there is discretion when
     coding an individual budget account against the function
     categories.  If the account finances activities in two or more
     subfunctions within a single function, the general function code
     is used; if the account is associated with two or more
     functions, a general multi-function code is used.\4

We are sending copies of this report to the Chairmen and Ranking
Minority Members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; Senate
Committee on the Budget; Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs;
House Committee on Appropriations; House Committee on the Budget;
House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight; and other
interested parties.  We will also make copies available to others on
request. 

We will continue to work with your office to provide timely
information and assistance as you analyze these data.  If you have
any questions, please call me at (202) 512-9573.  The major authors
of this correspondence were Michael J.  Curro, Assistant Director,
who can be reached at (202) 512-2991; Laura Hamilton; and John
Mingus. 

Sincerely yours,

Paul L.  Posner
Director, Budget Issues


--------------------
\1 Obligations reflect orders placed, contracts awarded, services
received, and other similar transactions during a fiscal year.  As an
expression of an agency's total financial commitments for a given
period, gross obligations portray the relative size of an
organization, without regard to the type of underlying budgetary
resource or when resulting outlays may occur.  When aggregated,
however, gross obligations may overstate both department and
governmentwide totals.  For example, an agency's obligations may
include commitments made to another agency, which may then be
reobligated by the receiving agency in the same fiscal year. 

\2 This report updates a series of products we prepared for the
Chairman, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in 1995.  See
Government Restructuring:  Identifying Potential Duplication in
Federal Missions and Approaches (GAO/T-AIMD-95-161, June 7, 1995);
Budget Function Classification:  Agency Spending by Subfunction and
Object Category, Fiscal Year 1994 (GAO/AIMD-95-116FS, May 10, 1995);
and Budget Function Classification:  Agency Spending and Personnel
Levels for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (GAO/AIMD-95-115FS, April 11,
1995). 

\3 In this report, the term "subdepartment" generally refers to
second-tier organizational structures, such as bureaus,
administrations and services, and to individual independent agencies,
such as the U.S.  Postal Service or the Federal Maritime Commission. 

\4 Where an account's obligations were reported to more than one
function, we allocated the obligations on the same percentage basis
as reported for the account's gross budget authority; for accounts
lacking gross budget authority, we allocated the obligations on the
same percentage basis as reported for the account's gross outlays. 


DESCRIPTION OF BUDGET FUNCTIONS
=========================================================== Appendix I

Function                      Description           Subfunction
----------------------------  --------------------  ----------------------------
National Defense (050)        Common defense and    Department of Defense--
                              security of the       Military (051)
                              United States,
                              including raising,    Atomic Energy Defense
                              equipping, and        Activities (053)
                              maintaining of armed
                              forces; development   Defense-related Activities
                              and utilization of    (054)
                              weapons systems;
                              direct compensation
                              and benefits paid to
                              active military and
                              civilian personnel;
                              defense research,
                              development,
                              testing, and
                              evaluation; and
                              procurement,
                              construction,
                              stockpiling, and
                              other activities
                              undertaken to
                              directly foster
                              national security.

International Affairs (150)   Maintaining peaceful  International Development
                              relations, commerce,  and Humanitarian Assistance
                              and travel between    (151)
                              the United States
                              and the rest of the   International Security
                              world and promoting   Assistance (152)
                              international
                              security and          Conduct of Foreign Affairs
                              economic development  (153)
                              abroad.
                                                    Foreign Information and
                                                    Exchange Activities (154)

                                                    International Financial
                                                    Programs (155)

General Science, Space and    Resources allocated   General Science and Basic
Technology (250)              to science and        Research (251)
                              research activities
                              of the federal        Space Flight, Research, and
                              government that are   Supporting Activities (252)
                              not an integral part
                              of the programs
                              conducted under any
                              other function.

Energy (270)                  Promoting an          Energy Supply (271)
                              adequate supply and
                              appropriate use of    Energy Conservation (272)
                              energy to serve the
                              needs of the          Emergency Energy
                              economy.              Preparedness (274)

                                                    Energy Information, Policy,
                                                    and Regulation (276)

Natural Resources and         Developing,           Water Resources (301)
Environment (300)             managing, and
                              maintaining the       Conservation and Land
                              nation's natural      Management (302)
                              resources and
                              environment.          Recreational Resources
                                                    (303)

                                                    Pollution Control and
                                                    Abatement (304)

                                                    Other Natural Resources
                                                    (306)

Agriculture (350)             Promoting the         Farm Income Stabilization
                              economic stability    (351)
                              of agriculture and
                              the nation's          Agricultural Research and
                              capability to         Services (352)
                              maintain and
                              increase
                              agricultural
                              production.

Commerce and Housing Credit   Promotion and         Mortgage Credit (371)
(370)                         regulation of
                              commerce and the      Postal Service (372)
                              housing credit and
                              deposit insurance     Deposit Insurance (373)
                              industries, which
                              pertain to            Other Advancement of
                              collection and        Commerce (376)
                              dissemination of
                              social and economic
                              data (unless they
                              are an integral part
                              of another function,
                              such as health);
                              general purpose
                              subsidies to
                              business, including
                              credit subsidies to
                              the housing
                              industry; and the
                              postal service fund
                              and general fund
                              subsidies of that
                              fund.

Transportation (400)          Providing for the     Ground Transportation (401)
                              transportation of
                              the general public    Air Transportation (402)
                              and/or its property,
                              whether local or      Water Transportation (403)
                              national and
                              regardless of the     Other Transportation (407)
                              particular mode of
                              transportation.
                              Included are
                              construction of
                              facilities; purchase
                              of equipment;
                              research, testing,
                              and evaluation;
                              provision of
                              communications
                              related to
                              transportation;
                              operating subsidies
                              for transportation
                              facilities and
                              industries; and
                              regulatory
                              activities directed
                              specifically toward
                              the transportation
                              industry rather than
                              toward business.

Community and Regional        Development of        Community Development (451)
Development (450)             physical facilities
                              or financial          Area and Regional
                              infrastructures       Development (452)
                              designed to promote
                              viable community      Disaster Relief and
                              economies.            Insurance (453)

Education, Training,          Promoting the         Elementary, Secondary, and
Employment, and Social        extension of          Vocational Education (501)
Services (500)                knowledge and
                              skills, enhancing     Higher Education (502)
                              employment and
                              employment            Research and General
                              opportunities,        Education Aids (503)
                              protecting workplace
                              standards, and        Training and Employment
                              providing services    (504)
                              to the needy.
                                                    Other Labor Services (505)

                                                    Social Services (506)

Health (550)                  Programs other than   Health Care Services (551)
                              Medicare whose basic
                              purpose is to         Health Research and Training
                              promote physical and  (552)
                              mental health,
                              including the         Consumer and Occupational
                              prevention of         Health and Safety (554)
                              illness and
                              accidents.

Medicare (570)                Federal hospital      Medicare (571)
                              insurance and
                              federal
                              supplementary
                              medical insurance,
                              along with general
                              fund subsidies of
                              these funds and
                              associated
                              offsetting receipts.

Income Security (600)         Support payments      General Retirement and
                              (including            Disability Insurance
                              associated            (excluding Social Security)
                              administrative        (601)
                              expenses) to persons
                              for whom no current   Federal Employee Retirement
                              service is rendered.  and Disability (602)
                              Included are
                              retirement,           Unemployment Compensation
                              disability,           (603)
                              unemployment,
                              welfare, and similar  Housing Assistance (604)
                              programs, except for
                              social security and   Food and Nutrition
                              income security for   Assistance (605)
                              veterans, which are
                              in other functions.   Other Income Security (609)

Social Security (650)         Federal old age and   Social Security (651)
                              survivors and
                              disability insurance
                              trust funds, along
                              with general fund
                              subsidies of these
                              funds and associated
                              offsetting
                              collections.

Veterans Benefits and         Programs providing    Income Security for Veterans
Services (700)                benefits and          (701)
                              services, the
                              eligibility for       Veterans Education,
                              which is related to   Training, and Rehabilitation
                              prior military        (702)
                              service, but the
                              financing of which    Hospital and Medical Care
                              is not an integral    for Veterans (703)
                              part of the costs of
                              national defense.     Veterans Housing (704)

                                                    Other Veterans Benefits and
                                                    Services (705)

Administration of Justice     Programs to provide   Federal Law Enforcement
(750)                         judicial services,    Activities (751)
                              police protection,
                              law enforcement       Federal Litigative and
                              (including civil      Judicial Activities (752)
                              rights),
                              rehabilitation and    Federal Correctional
                              incarceration of      Activities (753)
                              criminals, and the
                              general maintenance   Criminal Justice Assistance
                              of domestic order.    (754)

General Government (800)      General overhead      Legislative Functions (801)
                              cost of the federal
                              government,           Executive Direction and
                              including             Management (802)
                              legislative and
                              executive             Central Fiscal Operations
                              activities;           (803)
                              provision of central
                              fiscal, personnel,    General Property and Records
                              and property          Management (804)
                              activities; and
                              provision of          Central Personnel Management
                              services that cannot  (805)
                              reasonably be
                              classified in any     General Purpose Fiscal
                              other major           Assistance (806)
                              function.
                                                    Other General Government
                                                    (808)

                                                    Deductions for Offsetting
                                                    Receipts (809)

Net Interest (900)            Transactions which    Interest on the Public Debt
                              directly give rise    (901)
                              to interest payments
                              or income (lending)   Interest Received by On-
                              and the general       Budget Trust Funds (902)
                              shortfall or excess
                              of outgo over income  Interest Received by Off-
                              arising out of        Budget Trust Funds (903)
                              fiscal, monetary,
                              and other policy      Other Interest (908)
                              considerations and
                              leading to the
                              creation of
                              interest-bearing
                              debt instruments
                              (normally the public
                              debt).

Undistributed Offsetting      Offsetting receipts   Employer Share, Employee
Receipts (950)                that are not          Retirement (on Budget)
                              included as           (951)
                              deductions from
                              outlays in the        Employer Share, Employee
                              applicable function   Retirement (off Budget)
                              or subfunction,       (952)
                              above, and are thus
                              "undistributed."      Rents and Royalties on the
                                                    Outer Continental Shelf
                                                    (953)

                                                    Sales of Major Assets (954)

                                                    Other Undistributed
                                                    Offsetting Receipts (959)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Subfunction code 999 is assigned to those budget accounts
whose activities are associated with two or more functions. 


FISCAL YEAR 1996 FEDERAL SPENDING
BY DEPARTMENT AND AGENCY

========================================================== Appendix II



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FISCAL YEAR 1996 FEDERAL SPENDING
BY BUDGET FUNCTION AND SUBFUNCTION

========================================================= Appendix III



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