FY 2016 Federal Budget: Request & Appropriation Summary

The Fiscal Year 2016 Federal Budget explains U.S. government revenue and spending from October 1, 2015, through September 30, 2016. Revenue of $3.276 trillion is less than $3.876 trillion in spending. That created a $600 billion budget deficit.

The President submitted the FY 2016 budget proposal to Congress on February 2, 2015. Congress passed a $1.15 trillion spending bill on December 18th, 2015.

To understand how this works, see the Budget Process.

Here is a breakout of FY 2016 budget revenue and spending. It compares the most recent estimates, including the amount appropriated by Congress, to the President's budget. (Source: "Table S-5. Mid-Session Review Fiscal Year 2017," Office of Management and Budget, July 15, 2016. "FY 2017 Budget," February 9, 2016. "FY 2016 Budget," February 2, 2015. )

Revenue

The federal government received $3.276 trillion in FY 2016. That's lower than President's budget estimate of $3.545 trillion. Income taxes contributed 47%, payroll taxes were 34%, and corporate taxes were 9%. The remaining 10% came from excise taxes, estate taxes, interest on Federal Reserve deposits, and other miscellaneous sources.

Tax Freedom Day occurred in late April. That's how long each taxpayer works to pay for all Federal revenue collected.

Spending

The government spent $3.876 trillion, slightly less than the President's budget of $3.99 trillion.

That's because mandatory spending came in lower than the President's estimate. Congressional appropriations for discretionary spending programs were higher. Here's the breakout.

Mandatory: The government spent $2.487 trillion on mandated benefits, less than the $2.543 trillion budgeted. This portion of the budget is an estimate, not an appropriation.

That's because Congress mandated the benefit payments when it originally passed the laws that created the programs.

Social Security -- $911 billion spent ($938 billion budgeted). Payroll taxes fund 100% of the cost.
Medicare -- $586 billion ($583 billion budgeted). Payroll taxes and premiums fund 57% of the cost.
Medicaid -- $369 billion ($351 billion budgeted). Paid out of the general fund.
All other -- $621 billion ($497 billion budgeted). Food Stamps, and Supplemental Security for the Disabled are paid out of the general fund. Unemployment Compensation is partially funded by payroll taxes. The Affordable Care Act and TARP are self-funded.

Interest payments on the national debt are not officially part of the mandatory budget, but the payments are in fact mandatory because they must be made. The expected payment is $233, higher than the $223 billion budgeted.

Discretionary: The President's budget was $1.086 trillion. As you can see, Congress didn't cut much. Here's the budget compared to what was allocated for the major departments:

FY 2016 Budget Request vs Allocation (in billions)

Department	President's Request (Source: FY 2016 Budget)	Congressional Allocation (Source: FY 2017 Budget)
Department of Defense	$534.3	$521.7
Health and Human Services	$79.9	$84.6
Education	$70.7	$68.3
Veterans Affairs	$70.2	$71.6
Homeland Security	$41.2	$41.1
Energy Department	$29.9	$29.6
National Nuclear Security Administration	$12.6	$12.5
Housing and Urban Development	$41.0	$37.5
Justice Department	$14.9	$28.7
State Department (includes Foreign Aid)	$46.3	$37.9
NASA	$18.5	$19.3
All Other Programs	$221.1	$940.3
TOTAL Base Budget	$1,086.8	$1,080.2
Emergency Funding	$68.1	$82.8
TOTAL DISCRETIONARY	$1,154.9	$1,163.0

Emergency Funding: Congress allowed emergency funding outside its spending bill. That boosted Discretionary funding to $1.163 trillion. A portion goes toward Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) to fund wars. After Hurricane Katrina, it included disaster relief. It's continued to expand over the years to include the following:

Defense OCO: $58.6 billion
State and Homeland Security OCO: $15.1 billion
Disaster Relief: $7.1 billion
Program Integrity: $1.5 billion. (Source: FY 2016 and FY 2017 Budgets, Supplemental Table S-11.)