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Mandatory appropriations form the largest component of the Federal Budget making up more than 60% of the government's spend. It consists of things like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  

Cabinet Departments and Agencies are funded primarily under the Discretionary Budget. A few of the Cabinet Departments that receive funding from this budget include the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to those organizations, this budget also funds Independent Agencies such as the CIA, NASA, and the USPS. 

There are two categories of Discretionary Spending, Defense and Non-Defense:

• 2022 Defense Budget: $782B
• 2022 Non-Defense Budget: $730B

The net interest paid on the nation's debt is a fast growing component of the Federal Budget. As the amount of debt increases so too does the amount of interest the government is obligated to pay to service that debt. 

Department of Agriculture: $198.1B

Department of Commerce: $11.576B

Department of Defense: $782B

Department of Education: $152.8B

Department of Energy: $45.48B

Department of Health and Human Services: $1.7T

Department of Homeland Security: $127.09B

Department of Housing and Urban Development: $84.1B

Department of the Interior: $71.11B

Department of Justice: $35.3B

Department of Labor: $105.7B

Department of State: $58.5B

Department of Transportation: $282.61B

Department of the Treasury: $95.8B

Department of Veterans Affairs: $268.37B

Tracking the government's annual budget is far from straightforward. As such, we at DC Digest are continually validating these numbers. Some of the confusion comes from the combination of mandatory and discretionary spend in departmental budgets, where the discretionary budget is widely reported while the mandatory segment is less available via traditional sources.

DC Digest believes that the total government spend should be easy to find and simple to understand. To that end we are striving to provide an accurate budget number for each department and agency and break down that budget into meaningful chunks that can help the public understand, at a high level, where their tax dollars are being spent.