Federal Spending Tracker
Where the US federal government's money goes — total outlays by fiscal year, spending by agency, and the split between mandatory and discretionary programs. Every figure comes from the U.S. Treasury's Monthly Treasury Statement or the Federal Reserve's FRED service, refreshed daily, with free CSV/JSON export and no login.
Latest fiscal year — headline figures
Annual fiscal-year series: net outlays FYONET, receipts FYFR, surplus/deficit FYFSD.
What counts as federal spending
Federal spending — "outlays" in budget terminology — is the actual cash the U.S. government pays out during a fiscal year: Social Security and Medicare benefits, defense contracts, federal salaries, grants to states, and interest on the national debt. The federal fiscal year runs October 1 through September 30 and is named for the calendar year in which it ends. In fiscal year 2024, the government spent $6.75 trillion and collected $4.92 trillion, producing a deficit of $1.83 trillion — the final full-year totals published in the Treasury's September 2024 Monthly Treasury Statement.
Outlays differ from "budget authority," which is what Congress authorizes and may be drawn down over several years. The Treasury reports actual cash-basis outlays every month in the Monthly Treasury Statement, and the September statement closes the books on each fiscal year. Our Receipts vs Outlays dashboard charts the full history back to 1947, in dollars and as a share of GDP.
Mandatory vs discretionary spending
Roughly two-thirds of federal outlays are mandatory spending — programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid whose costs flow automatically from eligibility rules written into permanent law. They grow with the number of beneficiaries and with inflation, without any annual vote. Discretionary spending — defense, federal agencies, courts, research, and infrastructure — is set each year through the twelve appropriations bills and makes up roughly a quarter to a third of the total.
The remainder is net interest on the national debt — the fastest-growing major line in the budget, which passed $880 billion in FY 2024 as debt grew and interest rates rose. Because interest must be paid before anything else, it steadily compresses the room available for everything Congress votes on annually. The Interest Expense vs Revenue dashboard tracks that squeeze against total receipts.
Federal spending by agency
Net outlays by agency, from the Treasury's fiscal-year closeout statements. Total net outlays grew from $4.45T in FY 2019 to $6.75T in FY 2024 — a 51.7% nominal increase. The six largest agencies:
| Agency | FY 2019 outlays | FY 2024 outlays |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Health and Human Services | $1.21T | $1.72T |
| Social Security Administration | $1.10T | $1.52T |
| Department of the Treasury | $689.50B | $1.31T |
| Department of Defense | $653.98B | $826.29B |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $199.57B | $325.00B |
| Department of Education | $104.36B | $268.35B |
Source: U.S. Treasury, Monthly Treasury Statement (September 2019 and September 2024, Table 4). Treasury outlays are dominated by interest on the national debt. Full 30-agency table, inflation-adjusted comparisons and multi-year trends: Agency Spending dashboard.
Where the money comes from — and what fills the gap
Spending is only half the ledger. Individual income taxes and payroll taxes together provide the overwhelming majority of federal receipts, with corporate income taxes, excise taxes and customs duties rounding out the rest — the Revenue Composition dashboard breaks down the mix. When outlays exceed receipts, the Treasury borrows to cover the deficit, and those accumulated deficits are the national debt — which you can watch grow in real time on our debt clock, or measure against the economy on the debt-to-GDP page.
To see what your household's share of all this spending looks like, try the “Your share of federal spending” calculator. For the raw monthly cash flows behind the fiscal-year totals, see the Daily Treasury Statement explainer.
Explore the spending data
Receipts vs Outlays
Revenue, spending and the deficit, 1947 to today.
Agency Spending
All 30 agencies, FY 2019 vs FY 2024, nominal and real.
Revenue Composition
Where federal receipts come from, by source.
National Debt Clock
The accumulated result of every deficit, live.
Looking for award-level detail — individual contracts, grants and loans? That lives at the official USAspending.gov . See how the major trackers differ on our trackers comparison page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the US federal government spend per year?
In fiscal year 2024 (October 2023 through September 2024), the federal government spent $6.75 trillion and collected $4.92 trillion in receipts, leaving a deficit of $1.83 trillion. These are the final full-year figures from the U.S. Treasury's September 2024 Monthly Treasury Statement.
What does the federal government spend the most on?
By agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (Medicare and Medicaid) is the largest at $1.72 trillion in FY 2024, followed by the Social Security Administration at $1.52 trillion and the Department of the Treasury at $1.31 trillion — most of which is interest on the national debt. The Department of Defense is fourth at $826 billion.
What is the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending?
Mandatory spending flows automatically from eligibility rules written into permanent law — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the debt — and makes up roughly two-thirds of federal outlays. Discretionary spending is set each year by Congress through the twelve annual appropriations bills and covers defense, agencies, courts, and research.
Where does this federal spending data come from?
Directly from the U.S. Treasury's Monthly Treasury Statement — the official monthly accounting of federal receipts and outlays — and from fiscal-year series published through the Federal Reserve's FRED service. GOVSPENDING.ORG is independent and nonpartisan; nothing is modeled or estimated, and every table exports as CSV or JSON.
More on how we source and refresh this data: Methodology & data sources