*HomeU.S. Government Accountability Office*
Menu

      close


          
          
                          	
				
				
	
	
					Reports & Testimonies
									
																				
				
				
	
	
								Reports & Testimonies
													
																												
																						
							
																Recommendations Database
							
																												
																						
							
																Month in Review
							
																												
																						
							
																Order Copies
							
																												
																						
							
																Restricted Reports
							
																												
																						
							
																View Topics
							
																												
																						
							
																View Agencies
							
																												
																						
							
																Bid Protests & Appropriations Law
									
																				
				
				
	
	
								Bid Protests & Appropriations Law
													
																												
																						
							
																Bid Protests
							
																												
																						
							
																Appropriations Law
							
																												
																						
							
																Federal Vacancies Reform Act
							
																												
																						
							
																Other Legal
							
																												
																						
							
																About
									
																				
				
				
	
	
								About
													
																												
																						
							
																What GAO Does
							
																												
																						
							
																U.S. Comptroller General
							
																												
																						
							
																Careers
							
																												
																						
							
																Contact UsFor Congress
                                
                          
        
                Press Center
                                
                          
        
                Careers
                                
                          
        
                BlogSearch Breadcrumb
        Home
                            Tracking The Funds
    Featured Topic
    
          Image

                          Tracking the Funds
                          Following Community Project Funding and Congressionally Directed Spending from appropriation, to agency, to recipient, to project completion. Jump To:
    Jump ToElder Abuse
          Services for Older Adults
          State and Local-Level Drivers and Trends
          State and Local Fiscal Projections
          Federal Borrowing
          Managing the Debt
          Summary of Funding Provisions
          Auditing the Government's Books
          Unpacking the Financial Report
          Highlights
          Recommendations
          Background
          About This Work
          About This Work
          Trends
          About the Center
          Why It's High Risk
          What Remains To Be Done
          Key Reports
          Newest COVID-Related Reports
          AI Use Cases
          Flood Insurance
          Past Pandemic-Related Reports
          CARES Act Oversight Reports
          All COVID-19 Reports
          Report Suspected Fraud
          Subjects
          How to Get Notified
          Past Reports
          Public Health Threats
          Explore the FY 2022 and 2023 Funds
          Lessons Learned
          Agency Reports
          Recent Reports
          Recommendations
          Supplemental Material
          Full Report
          Additional Data
          View Decision
          Downloads
          Previously Identified Actions
          Related Pages
          Associated Agencies
          Tough Choices and Opportunities Ahead
          Americas Fiscal Future Key Areas
          Retirement Security Key Areas
          Current List
          About The High Risk List
          Area Ratings
          Previous High Risk Products
          Search Federal Vacancies
          Past Federal Vacancies
          Violation Letters
          About the Yellow Book
          Advisory Council
          Related Resources
          Comment Letters
          Related Publications
          Contacts and Resources
          Major Issues Facing the Nation
          Meeting Strategic Challenges
          Additional Resources
          Resources
          GAO Contacts
          Mission Teams
          Operations and Staff Offices
          Organization Chart
          Why a Career at GAO?
          Am I Qualified?
          Company Culture
          Reasonable Accommodations
          Video Gallery
          Paid Internships
          Student Volunteers
          Professional Development Program
          Advancement
          Executive Candidate Program
          Summer Associates
          Externships
          Benefits
          Contacts
                    OverviewOn September 28, 2023, GAO issued several new updates to our Tracking the Funds series. As part of the FY 2022 and 2023 appropriations processes, Members of Congress could request provisions designating an amount of funds to a particular recipient—such as a local government or nonprofit organization—for a specific project. Member requests directed funds for specific projects that generally would otherwise have been left to agencies’ discretion. These provisions are called "Congressionally Directed Spending" in the U.S. Senate and "Community Project Funding" in the House of Representatives.

To help Congress oversee these funds, we issued the following new resources:

A report tracking how federal agencies implemented the FY22 provisions
	A report analyzing the makeup of the FY23 provisions
	An interactive map and chart where you can track the funds by agency, location, state, and other options for FYs 2022 and 2023.Future oversight is planned.Summary of Funding ProvisionsIn FY22, the Consolidated Appropriations Act designated funds totaling $9.1 billion for almost 5,000 projects. Eighteen federal agencies are responsible for distributing funds to designated recipients and monitoring expenditure of those funds for projects funded in FY22. We issued reports at the end of FY22 describing each agency’s plans for funds distribution and monitoring.

Agencies have begun implementing the FY22 provisions, as we outline in our new report. As of the end of FY22, the 18 agencies:

made legal commitments to pay recipients—such as signing contracts or awarding grants—for about one third of the funds (or half of the projects), and
	distributed about 2 percent of the funds (for about 6 percent of the projects).In FY23, the designated funds totaled $15.3 billion for about 7,200 projects. Other than the addition of one new agency in FY23—the Office of National Drug Control Policy—the same 18 agencies received funding for these provisions in both years. Our report analyzing the makeup of the FY23 provisions also provides information on any changes agencies have made to their FY22 plans for distributing and monitoring funds.

What are the intended uses of these funds?

Federal spending is designated into broad purpose categories called Budget Functions, and the funding provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Acts cover a broad range of purposes. The top five purposes over both years are Community and Regional Development, Natural Resources and Environment, Transportation, National Defense, and Health.

**Budget Functions of Funding Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 and 2023**

Image
              Budget Functions of the Funding Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Acts, 2022 and 2023aThe category “Other” includes the General Government and Income Security budget functions, as well as provisions and funding spread across multiple functions.

Who are the designated recipients?

Across both years, Congress designated the most provisions to tribal, state, local, and territorial governments. In some cases, these entities may distribute the funds in the future to subrecipients, such as nonprofits, to implement the projects. In other cases, a federal agency was designated to directly undertake projects, such as dam-building or river-dredging, in communities.

**Recipients of the Funding Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 and 2023**

**Recipient type**
			**Funding for provisions**
			**Number of provisions**Tribal/State/Local/Territorial Government
			$11,339.5
			5,891Federal Government
			$5,363.0
			687Other Nonprofit Organizations
			$4,946.3
			4,207Higher Education Organizations
			$2,743.9
			1,411For FY23, funds were designated for projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and 4 U.S. territories This is consistent with the locations for the FY22 provisions plus one additional state—Wyoming—for FY23.  See our interactive map for how the FY22 funds are being implemented across the states and territories.

How long will the funds be available?

Congress generally gives budget authority to an agency for a specific period, referred to as “the period of availability.” Time-limited authority can be provided for one or multiple years, while some budget authority never expires.

For the FY23 provisions, 71 percent of the funds are available for agencies to obligate for a fixed period ranging from 1 year to 5 years. After the funds’ period of availability expires, agencies generally have 5 years to fully disburse the funds. The remaining 29 percent of funds are not time limited, so the funds will be available for obligation until they are spent. In some instances, the timeline that agencies set for recipients to spend funds may be shorter than what is specified in law.

For the FY22 funds, agencies legally committed (or obligated) 99.2 percent of funds for provisions designated with one-year funding before they expired. For provisions designating funds with periods of availability longer than one year, agencies generally recorded fewer obligations.Explore the FY 2022 and 2023 FundsCongress designated funding to 19 agencies across various locations, and for differing purposes over the last two years. Use our interactive map and chart to track the funding by agency, location, state, period of availability, and other options for FYs 2022 and 2023.

Explore the FundsAgency ReportsThe Office of National Drug Control Policy is the only agency to receive these provisions in FY23 that did not receive such provisions in FY22. A report on ONDCP’s plans for distributing and monitoring the funds is listed below along with reports on the 18 agencies that received provisions in both FY22 and FY23. For updated information on the other 18 agencies’ processes for monitoring and distributing funds, please see our report analyzing the makeup of the FY23 provisions.
      
      Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2023 Provisions for the Office of National Drug Control PolicyGAO-23-106859
      
	Published:  Sep 29, 2023


	Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2023
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of DefenseGAO-23-105914
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of Health and Human ServicesGAO-23-105897
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentGAO-23-105902
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of JusticeGAO-23-105893
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Small Business AdministrationGAO-23-105907
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for U.S. Department of AgricultureGAO-23-105913
      
	Published:  Oct 04, 2022


	Publicly Released: Oct 04, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of CommerceGAO-22-105911
      
	Published:  Sep 29, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of LaborGAO-22-105901
      
	Published:  Sep 29, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Environmental Protection AgencyGAO-22-105903
      
	Published:  Sep 29, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for U.S. Army Corps of EngineersGAO-22-105919
      
	Published:  Sep 29, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of EducationGAO-22-105909
      
	Published:  Sep 20, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 20, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of Homeland SecurityGAO-22-105899
      
	Published:  Sep 20, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 20, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationGAO-22-105921
      
	Published:  Sep 20, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 20, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of EnergyGAO-22-105918
      
	Published:  Sep 12, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 12, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of TransportationGAO-22-105892
      
	Published:  Sep 12, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 12, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of the InteriorGAO-22-105904
      
	Published:  Sep 12, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 12, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for General Services AdministrationGAO-22-105896
      
	Published:  Sep 12, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 12, 2022
              Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for National Archives and Records AdministrationGAO-22-105883
      
	Published:  Sep 12, 2022


	Publicly Released: Sep 12, 2022
  

              Load All


  Contacts and ResourcesGAO Contacts

Heather Krause
      
              Heather Krause
            
            Managing Director
      
            krauseh@gao.gov
      
            (202) 512-2834


Allison Bawden
      
              Allison Bawden
            
            Director
      
            bawdena@gao.gov
      
            (202) 512-3841


Downloadable Resources

Download a spreadsheet of FY22 Community Project Funding and Congressionally Directed Spending items, updated to include federal obligation and expenditure data as of the end of FY22: Excel Workbook file with data definitions or Comma-Separated Values file.

Download a spreadsheet of FY23 Community Project Funding and Congressionally Directed Spending items: Excel Workbook file with data definitions or Comma-Separated Values file.
 Receive GAO Updates
  Stay informed as we add new reports & testimonies.

    GAO Logo
      U.S. Government Accountability Office


                                   Column 1
                            Press Center
                              Contact Us
                              Inspector General
                              Restricted Reports
                              Column 2
                            Copyright & Terms of Use
                              Privacy Policy
                              Accessibility
                              Sitemap
                              Column 3
                            FOIA Requests
                              Scam Alerts
                              No FEAR Act Data
                              Health Care Advisory Committees