Agency Spending: FY 2019 vs FY 2024
Net outlays by federal agency at the end of FY 2019 and FY 2024. Sourced from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, the official fiscal-year closeout report. Both nominal and inflation-adjusted (CPI-U) comparisons.
Outlays by Agency — FY 2019 vs FY 2024
Top 15 agencies by FY 2024 spend — sorted descending. Hover a bar to see exact dollars.
- FY 2019 Outlays
- FY 2024 Outlays
Agency outlays — full table
Click a column heading to sort. Negative values are accounting offsets (offsetting receipts).
| # | Agency | FY 2019 | FY 2024 | Change ($) | Change (%) | Change (2024 $) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Department of Health and Human Services | $1.21T | $1.72T | +$506.82B | +41.8% | +$220.48B |
| 2 | Social Security Administration | $1.10T | $1.52T | +$417.90B | +37.9% | +$157.98B |
| 3 | Department of the Treasury | $689.5B | $1.31T | +$622.36B | +90.3% | +$459.70B |
| 4 | Department of Defense | $654.0B | $826.3B | +$172.31B | +26.3% | +$18.04B |
| 5 | Department of Veterans Affairs | $199.6B | $325.0B | +$125.43B | +62.8% | +$78.35B |
| 6 | Department of Education | $104.4B | $268.4B | +$163.99B | +157.1% | +$139.37B |
| 7 | Department of Agriculture | $150.1B | $203.4B | +$53.28B | +35.5% | +$17.87B |
| 8 | Office of Personnel Management | $103.1B | $126.2B | +$23.03B | +22.3% | -$1.30B |
| 9 | Department of Transportation | $80.7B | $117.4B | +$36.67B | +45.4% | +$17.63B |
| 10 | Department of Homeland Security | $56.3B | $89.3B | +$32.95B | +58.5% | +$19.67B |
| 11 | Independent Agencies | $19.6B | $77.8B | +$58.18B | +296.7% | +$53.56B |
| 12 | Other Defense Civil Programs | $60.9B | $66.2B | +$5.29B | +8.7% | -$9.08B |
| 13 | Department of Labor | $35.8B | $65.7B | +$29.86B | +83.4% | +$21.41B |
| 14 | Department of Housing and Urban Development | $29.2B | $52.0B | +$22.79B | +78.1% | +$15.90B |
| 15 | Department of Energy | $28.9B | $49.3B | +$20.38B | +70.4% | +$13.55B |
| 16 | Department of Justice | $35.1B | $44.0B | +$8.89B | +25.3% | +$606.65M |
| 17 | Department of State | $28.0B | $37.0B | +$9.02B | +32.2% | +$2.41B |
| 18 | International Assistance Programs | $23.6B | $35.8B | +$12.22B | +51.8% | +$6.65B |
| 19 | Small Business Administration | $456M | $33.2B | +$32.74B | +7179.9% | +$32.63B |
| 20 | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $20.2B | $25.0B | +$4.84B | +24.0% | +$75.58M |
| 21 | Department of the Interior | $13.9B | $17.1B | +$3.18B | +22.9% | -$99.19M |
| 22 | Department of Commerce | $11.3B | $14.7B | +$3.42B | +30.2% | +$748.85M |
| 23 | Environmental Protection Agency | $8.1B | $13.7B | +$5.64B | +69.9% | +$3.73B |
| 24 | Corps of Engineers | $6.5B | $11.3B | +$4.89B | +75.8% | +$3.37B |
| 25 | Judicial Branch | $8.0B | $9.5B | +$1.52B | +19.1% | -$356.26M |
| 26 | National Science Foundation | $7.3B | $9.4B | +$2.14B | +29.4% | +$425.06M |
| 27 | Legislative Branch | $5.0B | $6.8B | +$1.88B | +37.9% | +$708.71M |
| 28 | Executive Office of the President | $422M | $617M | +$194.65M | +46.1% | +$95.10M |
| 29 | General Services Administration | -$1.1B | -$244M | +$856.87M | — | +$1.12B |
| 30 | Undistributed Offsetting Receipts | -$247.8B | -$330.6B | -$82.77B | — | -$24.31B |
Biggest nominal increases
- Small Business Administration+7180% ($32.7B)
- Independent Agencies+297% ($58.2B)
- Department of Education+157% ($164.0B)
- Department of the Treasury+90% ($622.4B)
- Department of Labor+83% ($29.9B)
Smallest nominal increases
- Other Defense Civil Programs+9% ($5.3B)
- Judicial Branch+19% ($1.5B)
- Office of Personnel Management+22% ($23.0B)
- Department of the Interior+23% ($3.2B)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration+24% ($4.8B)
Compare agencies over time — FY 2015 to FY 2025
Pick up to 4 agencies to chart annual net outlays. Switch to indexed mode when comparing agencies of wildly different scales.
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Social Security Administration
- Department of the Treasury
How to read this dashboard
The figures here are net outlays by agency — the official Treasury reporting unit, equal to cash disbursements minus any offsetting receipts that agency collects. They come from Table 4 of the September 2024 Monthly Treasury Statement (the final report of the fiscal year) and the corresponding September 2019 MTS. FY 2024 figures are exact to the penny; FY 2019 figures were published rounded to millions.
Two rows carry negative values because the MTS reports net outlays — General Services Administration collects more in reimbursable activity than it spends, and Undistributed Offsetting Receipts is an accounting bucket for agency collections that can't be tied to a specific outlay line. Both are kept in the table so the totals reconcile with the Treasury's top-line reported outlays of $4.447 trillion (FY 2019) and $6.752 trillion (FY 2024).
The "Change (2024 $)" column deflates FY 2019 spending by cumulative CPI-U inflation between the two fiscal years (about 23.6%) before computing the dollar change, so the comparison reflects purchasing power rather than nominal dollars. A positive real change means spending grew faster than consumer prices; a negative real change means spending shrank after inflation.
Key Terms
Frequently asked questions
Which federal agency spends the most?
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been the largest federal agency by outlays for over a decade, driven mostly by Medicare and Medicaid. HHS spent $1.72 trillion in FY 2024, ahead of the Social Security Administration ($1.52 trillion) and the Treasury ($1.31 trillion, most of which is interest on the national debt). The Department of Defense is the fourth largest at $826 billion.
How much did federal agency spending grow from FY 2019 to FY 2024?
Total net outlays grew from $4.45 trillion in FY 2019 to $6.75 trillion in FY 2024 — a 51.8% nominal increase over five fiscal years. CPI-U rose roughly 23.6% over the same period, so real (inflation-adjusted) spending growth was about 23% — still a substantial increase beyond what price levels would explain. Treasury debt service and HHS account for a large share of the dollar increase.
Why does the Department of the Treasury spend over a trillion dollars?
Treasury outlays are dominated by net interest on the federal debt, which the Treasury pays to bondholders as a gross cash outlay. Interest expense rose from about $376 billion in FY 2019 to over $880 billion in FY 2024 as the national debt grew and interest rates rose, pushing Treasury outlays from $689 billion to $1.31 trillion. The remainder is IRS operations, tax-refund payments, and various Treasury-managed programs.
Why do some agencies show negative outlays?
The Treasury reports net outlays, which subtract each agency's offsetting collections from its gross disbursements. The General Services Administration (GSA) collects more from its reimbursable-services fund than it spends, so its net outlay is negative. 'Undistributed Offsetting Receipts' is an accounting bucket for government-wide collections — mostly from federal employee retirement contributions, oil and gas lease royalties, and Medicare premium collections — that can't be tied to a specific agency's outlay line. Both are kept in the table so the totals reconcile with the Treasury's top-line published figure.
Where does this data come from?
Directly from the U.S. Treasury's Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) for September 2019 and September 2024 — the final MTS of each fiscal year, which closes the books on full-year receipts and outlays by agency. The MTS is the authoritative source for federal cash-basis spending; the same figures appear in the President's Budget and in doge.gov's spending display. CPI-U inflation figures for the real-dollar comparison come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.