- What is the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)?
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OMB is a key part of the Executive Office of the President and helps the president execute their agenda across the executive branch. OMB does this in several ways:
- It develops the president's annual budget request to Congress and helps execute the appropriations laws Congress passes by making funds available to federal agencies through the apportionment process.
- It coordinates and reviews all significant federal regulations.
- It oversees agency performance, procurement, information technology, and financial management.
- It reviews legislation and clears agencies' interactions with Congress, including testimony and legislative proposals.
- It reviews and clears executive orders and memoranda to agency heads.
This site concerns only the apportionment of appropriated funds; it is a searchable database, updated daily, of OMB's public apportionments from fiscal year 2022 to the present. It does not show whether and how agencies have used apportioned funds.
For more on what an apportionment is, see the next FAQ. For more information on OMB holistically, consult the White House's website and The Office of Management and Budget: An Insider's Guide, a resource written by former OMB officials. And to dig into what agencies do with the money they receive, check out USAspending.gov and Grants.gov.
- What is an apportionment?
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An apportionment is a legally binding plan that sets the pace at which federal agencies may spend appropriated funds over the course of a fiscal year. Apportionments specify what funds an agency may spend, when, and any conditions an agency must meet before spending them.
Congress established the apportionment process in the Antideficiency Act and gave the president the authority to apportion appropriations. The president has delegated that authority to OMB.
The apportionment of funds is the second step in the life cycle of federal funds.
- Congress appropriates the funds.
- OMB apportions the appropriation.
- And agencies obligate the apportioned funds by purchasing a service, entering into a contract, awarding a grant, or otherwise taking an action that requires the government to make a payment.
Congress created the apportionment authority to ensure agencies spend within the limits of the law. It is meant to be a purely ministerial tool that prevents agencies from prematurely exhausting the funds appropriated for them. But administrations of both parties have abused this tool in violation of the law and in excess of their authority. President Trump did so by withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine through a series of apportionment footnotes, which violated the Impoundment Control Act. Presidents Nixon and Roosevelt also abused this power, as we detail in another FAQ below.
Appropriated funds may be apportioned in several ways:
- By time — e.g. months, calendar quarters, operating seasons, or other time periods. This is known as “Category A” apportionment. 31 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(1)(A).
- By agency activities, functions, or projects. This is known as a “Category B” apportionment. 31 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(1)(B).
- By time and project. This is known as a “Category AB” apportionment. 31 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(1)(C).
Category A, B, and AB apportionments make funds available for the current fiscal year. Another category of apportionment — known as “Category C” — reserves funds in “multi-year” accounts (for instance, an account with money available from 2022-2027) or “no-year” accounts (in which funds are available for indefinite period) for future fiscal years. Funds found on a Category C line, in other words, are not available for the current fiscal year.
Apportionments are legally binding on an agency under the Antideficiency Act. Officials who fail to follow an apportionment may violate that law and expose themselves to administrative or criminal penalties, which include a fine of up to $5,000 and a prison term of up to two years. 31 U.S.C. § 1519.
- How do I read an apportionment?
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Most apportionments come in the form of an Excel spreadsheet with rows and columns.
The unnumbered rows at the top of an apportionment provide information about the funds being apportioned and the agency and bureau that receive those funds.
The numbered rows in an apportionment are split into a top half and a bottom half. The top half of the apportionment — line numbers starting with 1 (1xxx) — is purely descriptive. It reflects the budgetary resources generally available to the agency. (Budgetary resources include unobligated balances from prior years, appropriations, authority to borrow money, and authority to enter into contracts, among other resources.)
The bottom half of the apportionment—line numbers starting with 6 (6xxx) — is where OMB uses its statutory apportionment authority to divide amounts by time, project, or both. This section of the apportionment is known as the application of budgetary resources and it is legally binding on the receiving agency.
Funds in the application of budgetary resources section may be apportioned in several different ways:
- By time — e.g. months, calendar quarters, operating seasons, or other time periods. This is known as “Category A” apportionment.
- By agency activities, functions, or projects. This is known as a “Category B” apportionment.
- By time and project. This is known as a “Category AB” apportionment.
- Funds in “no-year” (or indefinite) accounts or “multi-year” accounts may also be reserved for future fiscal years. This is known as a “Category C” apportionment.
Inside the executive branch, apportionments have several columns. These columns reflect OMB's prior apportionment for a given account, the agency's request for a new apportionment, the current apportionment action, and the footnotes associated with each of these. These columns are titled “Previous Approved,” “Prev Footnote,” “Agency Request,” “Agency Footnote,” “OMB Action,” and “OMB Footnote,” respectively. The apportionments OMB discloses to the public contain only the “OMB Action” and “OMB Footnote” columns. But for accounts with more than one account-specific apportionment in a given fiscal year, OpenOMB recreates the “Previous Approved” and “Prev Footnote” columns by drawing on the data from the prior account-specific apportionment. This allows users more easily to compare an apportionment to its predecessor and see changes across apportionments.
Apportionments are complex documents. But in Oct. 2022, three experts hosted a training session and broke down how to read them. Watch the training below or go directly to the video.
For more information on the line numbers in an apportionment, consult OMB Circular No. A-11, which lists and explains the meaning of all possible line numbers. For information on the “OMB Footnotes” column in apportionments, consult the next FAQ
- What is an apportionment “iteration”?
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An “iteration” is the version of an apportionment.
The Antideficiency Act requires OMB to apportion appropriations and review an apportionment at least four times a year. It also gives OMB the authority to “reapportion” an appropriation — that is, to revise its original apportionment and issue a new version that supersedes the prior one. On OpenOMB, each version of an apportionment is referred to as an “iteration.” The first account-specific apportionment in a given fiscal year is Iteration 1, the second is Iteration 2, and so on. This convention matches the file names on OMB's apportionment website, apportionment-public.max.gov.
Take, for example, the FY2022 apportionments for the “no-year” (or indefinite) appropriation within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Operations and Support Account. This no-year sub-account within the Operations and Support Account is designated by the TAFS 070-0540 /X. In FY2022, that sub-account had four apportionments:
Iteration 1, issued on Oct. 27, 2021;
Iteration 2, issued on Mar. 7, 2022;
Iteration 3, issued on Apr. 23, 2022;
and Iteration 4, issued on Sept. 2, 2022.
(It is worth noting some accounts may have only a single apportionment for a given fiscal year. See, for instance, Salaries and Expenses Account for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.)
- What is the “previously approved” column on OpenOMB's apportionments?
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“Previously approved” reflects the prior apportionment action.
Inside the executive branch, apportionments have several columns. These columns reflect OMB's prior apportionment for a given account, the agency's request for a new apportionment, the current apportionment action, and the footnotes associated with each of these. These columns are titled “Previous Approved,” “Prev Footnote,” “Agency Request,” “Agency Footnote,” “OMB Action,” and “OMB Footnote,” respectively.
The apportionments OMB discloses to the public contain only the “OMB Action” and “OMB Footnote” columns. But for accounts with more than one account-specific apportionment in a given fiscal year, OpenOMB recreates the “Previous Approved” and “Prev Footnote” columns by drawing on the data from the prior account-specific apportionment. This allows users more easily to compare an apportionment to its predecessor and see changes across apportionments.
However, if a user wants to see only the current apportionment without the previously approved column, they may use the “hide previous iteration” toggle to display only the current apportionment action.
To see these features, check out this apportionment for the Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program.
OpenOMB's previously approved column does not reflect amounts made available to an agency under the automatic apportionment that OMB approves after the enactment of a short-term continuing resolution. (See, for example, OMB Bulletin No. 23-02, the apportionment of the continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024.) The column reflects only prior account-specific apportionments. For more information on apportionments under a continuing resolution, check out our FAQ below and section 123 of OMB Circular No. A-11.
- Who may apportion funds?
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The Antideficiency Act gives the president the authority to apportion funds. 31 U.S.C. § 1513(b). The president has delegated that authority to the OMB director, who has delegated it, in turn, to OMB's deputy associate directors (or DADs). DADs are career officials in the Senior Executive Service. (OMB also has published a backup delegation of apportionment authority in case the relevant DAD “is not available to apportion or reapportion the account because of a continuity event.”)
In 2020, the Trump administration shifted apportionment authority from career DADs to OMB's program associate directors (or PADs), who are political appointees. This was a change from longstanding practice. After President Biden took office, OMB Director Shalanda Young restored apportionment authority to OMB's DADs.
To see a list of the titles of the OMB officials approving apportionments, check the “Approved by” dropdown on our search page. To see the title of the approving official on the file page for an apportionment you are viewing on OpenOMB, look for the “Approved by” information next to the fiscal year. And if you are viewing an apportionment in the original Excel file, check the “Approval_Info” tab.
- How do I find apportionments for the funds I care about?
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There are a number of ways to use OpenOMB's database to find apportionments of interest.
- One way is to explore by agency and bureau.
- Another is to use OpenOMB's keyword search function to search the terms of interest to you — for instance, searching “immigration” to find accounts and apportionments related to immigration. You can restrict this search by agency and bureau to find immigration-related apportionments only for a particular agency, like the Department of Homeland Security, or only for a particular component of DHS, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- To check how OMB has been executing a recently passed appropriations bill, you could search the public law number in the keyword search. For instance, to find apportionments for the April 2024 supplemental appropriations bill providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, you would search “118-50” for the bill's public law number.
Another approach is to search for the name or number of the account being apportioned. An apportionment makes available to an agency the budgetary resources from a given appropriation or fund account that is set up in the Treasury. The name of an account typically originates in an appropriations act — specifically in the act's unnumbered paragraph headings, which correspond to an account set up in the Treasury for a particular agency and bureau. Take, for example, the “Health Care Systems” appropriation in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. That appropriation is for the Health Resources and Services Administration (the bureau) within the Department of Health and Human Services (the agency). “Health Care Systems” is the title of the unnumbered paragraph heading in the appropriations act. It denotes an account set up in the Treasury called “Health Care Systems.”
Thus, to search by the name or number of the account, you can search by:
- The likely title of the account found in the unnumbered paragraph headings of an appropriations act;
- Or the number of the account — the Treasury Account Symbol, or TAS — found in the Treasury Department's Federal Account Symbols and Titles (FAST) Book Part II. For more information on the TAS, see the FAQ below.
- For more detailed instructions on finding an account name and number, consult these instructions.
- What happens to apportionments under a continuing resolution?
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In recent years, Congress has struggled to pass full-year appropriations bills on time and therefore has tended to fund the government at the start of the fiscal year through short-term continuing resolutions (a continuing resolution is considered “short-term” if it lasts for only part of a fiscal year, rather than for a full fiscal year).
Apportionments are done slightly differently under a CR than under full-year appropriations bills.
Most accounts receive an automatic apportionment from OMB under its “CR Bulletin,” rather than the typical account-specific apportionment. The “CR Bulletin” apportions funds based on the rate established in the CR (usually in section 101). For a recent example, see OMB Bulletin No. 23-02, the CR Bulletin OMB issued after the enactment of the continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024. (Automatic apportionments under a CR Bulletin are not reflected in the previously approved column on OpenOMB.)
In rare cases, agencies may request account-specific apportionments during the CR that exceed the amount they were automatically apportioned under the bulletin. These are known as “exception apportionments.” As OMB states in Circular No. A-11, it “grants exception apportionment requests only in extraordinary circumstances.” These circumstances include instances where the safety of human life or protection of federal property are at issue, or where a federal program typically requires more funding in some parts of the fiscal year than others. The quintessential example of this is the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides families with federal financial assistance to pay home energy bills, and typically requires more funding in the first two quarters of the fiscal year when the weather is colder. (See this example of a LIHEAP exception apportionment for FY2022.)
However, not all accounts receive automatic apportionments under the CR Bulletin. Some accounts receive account-specific apportionments. OMB's FY2024 CR Bulletin outlines the circumstances in which an account may receive an account-specific apportionment, rather than an automatic apportionment.
- How have presidents abused their apportionment authority?
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President Trump abused his apportionment authority by withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine through a series of apportionment footnotes that put a pause on that funding. The Government Accountability Office found that this hold violated the Impoundment Control Act.
Trump was not the first president to push the bounds of this authority, however. President Nixon often resorted to this tool, among others, as his administration impounded billions of dollars in appropriated funds for an array of domestic programs. This led to a thicket of lawsuits against the administration, which it overwhelmingly lost. See, e.g., Guadamuz v. Ash, 368 F. Supp. 1233 (D.D.C. 1973) (OMB withholding $210.5 million in Rural Environmental Assistance Program funds); Berends v. Butz, 357 F. Supp. 143 (D. Minn. 1973) (noting OMB apportionment's cap on funds available to Department of Agriculture).
President Roosevelt similarly pushed the bounds of the apportionment authority, using it during World War II to halt funding for programs that Congress had enacted into law but that the president deemed non-essential to the war effort. These withholdings prompted blowback from members of Congress and their constituents. Members took to the House floor and used their time in hearings to challenge the legal basis for the withholdings, and directly lobbied the executive branch to change course. In the words of one scholar, the practice of withholding funds also created a “feeling of uneasiness” among officials in the Bureau of the Budget (OMB's predecessor and the entity responsible for the withholdings). Some Bureau officials “expressed doubt about the Bureau's legal authority to impound funds” and questioned “the political wisdom of holding up projects for which Congress had appropriated funds.”
- What is a TAS? What is a TAFS?
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A TAS is a Treasury Account Symbol. A TAFS is a Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol. A TAS generically describes any account in the Treasury. A TAFS is a particular kind of account, namely one with budget authority — authority provided by statute to enter into financial obligations, such as by making payments, borrowing money, or contracting.
A TAS is composed of a three-digit agency identifier code and a four-digit account-specific code.
- The TAS for the Health Care Systems appropriation account is 075 0357. 075 identifies the Department of Health and Human Services as the agency and 0357 identifies Health Care Systems as an account in HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration.
A TAFS is composed of the three-digit agency identifier code, the four-digit account-specific code, and an additional piece of information: the period of availability of the funding. This period may be annual, or a single fiscal year; multi-year, or multiple fiscal years; or no-year, which means the funds are available until they are expended. No-year accounts are denoted by an X.
- For the Health Care Systems account, we see several kinds of TAFS. 075-0357 /X is a no-year account. 075-0357 2020/2022 was a multi-year account with funds available from fiscal year 2020-2022. And 075-0357 /2024 is an annual account with funding available only for fiscal year 2024.
A list of every TAS can be found in the Treasury Department's Federal Account Symbols and Titles (FAST) Book Part II.
Search Tip: When entering a TAS into our search tool, be sure to hyphenate the three-digit agency identifier code and four-digit unique account code as follows: 075-0357.
- Apportionments show what an agency can spend at a given time. Where can I find out what an agency has spent?
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The report on budget execution and budgetary resources — also known as an SF-133 — shows what an agency has spent. OMB publishes SF-133s.
For information on how to read an SF-133, see this explainer by Ed Martin, a former official at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked on budget execution there for over 30 years:
- I want to learn more about apportionments. What resources should I consult?
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In Oct. 2022, three experts led a training on how to read apportionments and the law governing them.
After working on budget execution at the Department of Health and Human Services for over 30 years, Ed Martin created a more detailed series of video explainers on apportionments:
- Module 1 defines an apportionment, explains why we apportion, and lays out the basic rules of apportionment.
- Module 2 covers the apportionment form, the Standard Form (SF) 132.
- Module 3 examines the rest of the apportionment and the circumstances in which an apportionment is not necessary.
An array of government resources also provide further information about apportionments.
OMB Circular No. A-11 is the manual behind the federal budget, offering guidance to agencies on budget preparation, submission, and execution. Sections 120, 123, and 124 of A-11 concern apportionments.
- Section 120 covers the apportionment process.
- Section 123 covers apportionments under continuing resolutions.
- Section 124 covers agency operations in the absence of appropriations.
- Appendix F covers the format of the Standard Form (SF) 132 (the apportionment form) and SF 133 (the report on budget execution and budgetary resources)
OMB updates Circular A-11 annually. One may find the most up-to-date version here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-for-agencies/circulars/
- What laws govern apportionments?
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Congress created the apportionment process in the Antideficiency Act to ensure federal agencies spend within the limits of the law. Failing to follow an apportionment may violate the Antideficiency Act and result in administrative or criminal penalties for the violating official.
The Antideficiency Act sections relevant to apportionments may be found here and below:
- 31 U.S.C. § 1511: What is apportioned?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1512: How should amounts be apportioned?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1513: Who controls apportionments? When must apportionments be approved?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1514: What are the requirements for a funds control system?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1515: When can deficiency apportionments be requested? When can they be approved?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1516: Which appropriations are exempt from apportionment?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1517: What happens if an agency obligates or expends in excess of an apportionment?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1518: What are the administrative penalties for exceeding an apportionment or administrative subdivision of funds?
- 31 U.S.C. § 1519: What are the criminal penalties for exceeding an apportionment or administrative subdivision of funds?