Budget on CrossGov.com

The Pentagon's $1.5 Trillion Request Meets a Stalled NDAA and a Stopgap That Funds Defence at $838 Billion

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fiscal 2027 budget asked Congress for $1.5 trillion for national defence, a 42% jump. The Pentagon is starting the year on $838.5 billion, under a continuing resolution that runs to 11 December and bars new programmes. The annual defence authorisation bill, which Congress has passed every year for more than six decades, is stuck in the Senate.

The gap between what was asked and what exists is the widest in years.

FY2027 Appropriations: The House Has Passed 3 of 12 Bills, the Senate None, With Funding Running Out December 11

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ten days into fiscal 2027, Congress has finished none of the twelve bills that fund the government. The House has passed three: Military Construction and Veterans Affairs on 15 May by 400 votes to 15, Agriculture on 4 June by 213 to 210, and National Security and State on 15 July by 217 to 209. The Senate hasn’t marked up a single one. Everything runs on a stopgap that expires on 11 December.

GAO Finds New Impoundment Violations as the House Proposes a 25% Cut to Congress's Watchdog

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 7 October 2026 the Government Accountability Office issued two more decisions finding that the executive branch broke the Impoundment Control Act. One concerned the EPA’s Community Change Grants. The other found that HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality withheld more than $78 million that Congress had appropriated.

They join a long list. In 2025 GAO found violations involving electric-vehicle charging money under the NEVI programme, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Head Start, the National Institutes of Health, FEMA and, in part, a DOE school-energy programme. By April 2025 it had 39 impoundment investigations open.

After USAID: GAO Counts 6,780 Awards Ended as the State Department Takes Over $52 Billion in Foreign Aid

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 30 September 2026 GAO published its accounting of what happened to the US Agency for International Development. Between January 2025 and March 2026, USAID ended about 6,780 of its 7,510 awards, on which $79.1 billion had been obligated. About $52.1 billion in active awards remains, now managed by the State Department. USAID’s staff fell from about 13,600 to 241 by April 2026.

GAO also found that State had no documented guidance for deciding which awards to end. It made three recommendations, which State accepted.

US Tariff Revenue Falls to $172 Billion in FY2026 as IEEPA Refunds Turn Customs Receipts Negative for Three Months

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For three months in 2026, the US government collected less in customs duties than it paid back. Net customs receipts were minus $0.04 billion in May, minus $25.56 billion in June and minus $8.55 billion in July, according to Treasury’s monthly statements. In June alone, refunds reached $49.18 billion.

The refunds followed the Supreme Court’s ruling in February that the President couldn’t impose tariffs under the emergency powers law. Importers had paid about $166 billion under those tariffs. By September, Customs and Border Protection had certified about $122 billion in refunds, including interest.

Improper Payments: $186 Billion a Year, a GAO Fraud Estimate Up to $521 Billion, and Treasury's Do Not Pay Push

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Federal agencies reported $186 billion in improper payments for fiscal 2025. About $153 billion of that was overpayments. The rest is mostly payments that agencies can’t show were correct, because the paperwork is missing.

Since 2003, the cumulative total is about $2.8 trillion, according to GAO. Most of it comes from a handful of large programmes.

Where the money goes

Medicare is the biggest source, at about $57 billion across its parts. Medicaid reported $37.39 billion. In Medicaid, about 77% of improper payments come from insufficient documentation, often eligibility files that states couldn’t produce, so the figure overstates outright waste.

Golden Dome: CBO Puts the Cost at $1.2 Trillion Over 20 Years While 97% of Next Year's Money Waits on Reconciliation

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 29 September 2026, Gen. Michael Guetlein told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee that an initial version of Golden Dome, the planned national missile defence system, could be ready by 2028, built from existing radars and interceptors. Six weeks earlier he had put it more bluntly to an audience in Huntsville: if the funding doesn’t come, there’s no Golden Dome.

Golden Dome is the defence programme where the gap between ambition and money is widest. The President announced it in May 2025 at $175 billion, to be fully operational within about three years. Congress gave it $24.4 billion through the July 2025 reconciliation law. The rest depends on bills that haven’t passed.

ICE Is Funded Through 2029 Outside the Normal Budget: Detention Near 69,000 and 2,365 Local 287(g) Agreements

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In September 2026 Immigration and Customs Enforcement made more than 48,000 arrests, according to an official speaking to NBC. Around the start of October it was holding about 69,000 people in detention. In fiscal 2025 the average was 42,500.

ICE can sustain that pace through a budget arrangement few agencies have. Its money no longer depends on the annual appropriations fight that just left most of the government on a stopgap. Two reconciliation laws, passed by simple majorities, fund ICE and the Border Patrol into early 2029.

US Government Funded to December 11 After a Year of Record Shutdowns

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fiscal year 2027 started on 1 October with the US government open. That’s worth saying, because over the past twelve months it often wasn’t.

It’s running on a continuing resolution. H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, became Public Law 119-103 on 2 September 2026. It keeps agencies funded at existing levels until 11 December, 72 days into the fiscal year. If Congress does nothing more, funding lapses on 12 December. None of the twelve regular appropriations bills for the year has been enacted.

Medicaid Work Requirements Start Nationwide January 1, 2027: Nebraska's First Data and 25 States in Court

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nebraska started checking work requirements for Medicaid early. From 1 May 2026, adults applying for coverage under the state’s Medicaid expansion had to show they worked, volunteered or studied at least 80 hours a month. From 1 July the rule applied to people renewing. By the end of September, at least 1,090 people had lost coverage or been denied. Of those who lost coverage at renewal, 92% lost it for procedural reasons, paperwork not filed or not processed, and more than half of new applicants were being denied.

State Budgets Go Flat for FY2027 as Rainy-Day Funds Fall and Washington Shifts SNAP and Medicaid Costs to the States

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 1 October 2026 every state started paying a bigger share of the cost of running SNAP, the food assistance programme. Their share of administrative costs rose from 50% to 75%, a shift of about $3.4 billion a year from Washington to state capitals. It’s the first of several cost transfers written into the July 2025 reconciliation law, and it arrives as state budgets are already tightening.

The state picture

The National Association of State Budget Officers’ spring 2026 survey shows the slowdown. States spent an estimated $1.38 trillion from their general funds in fiscal 2026, up 7.9%. For fiscal 2027, governors recommended $1.36 trillion, a 1.4% decline in aggregate, though one large state drives much of that. The median state plans growth of just 0.6%. Between 22 and 23 states proposed flat or lower spending.

Pocket Rescissions Explained: How a 1974 Law Against Nixon's Impoundments Became the 2025-26 Budget Fight

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 25 September 2026, five days before the fiscal year ended, the White House sent Congress a special message proposing to cancel $810 million across 11 accounts in seven departments. The biggest item was $567 million for refugee and entrant assistance at HHS. The House had already said it would be out until November.

That timing is the whole point of a pocket rescission. Under the 1974 law that governs it, the President can hold back money he has proposed to cancel for 45 days while Congress considers it. If the money expires before the 45 days are up, it’s gone, whatever Congress does. On 29 September GAO ruled that the President may not force the expiry of money Congress enacted and didn’t rescind. The money appears to have expired on 30 September anyway.

CBO Projects US Debt at 120% of GDP by 2036 and 175% by 2056 as Interest Costs Overtake Defence

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Between October 2025 and May 2026, the federal government spent $722.7 billion on net interest and $630.9 billion on national defence, according to Treasury’s monthly statements. Interest beat defence by $92 billion in eight months. In fiscal 2025 the two were close: $970 billion on interest, $917 billion on defence.

That crossover is the most concrete sign of what the Congressional Budget Office’s projections have been saying for years. The debt is now large enough that paying for it competes with everything else the government does.

US Debt Limit of $41.1 Trillion Expected to Bind in 2027: How Denmark, Germany and the EU Handle Borrowing Limits

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US federal debt limit stands at $41.1 trillion. The July 2025 budget reconciliation law raised it by $5 trillion. That bought about two years. The Congressional Budget Office’s February 2026 outlook says the Treasury will reach the limit sometime in 2027. The Bipartisan Policy Center expects it between late winter and mid-summer of 2027, with the Treasury’s accounting manoeuvres, known as extraordinary measures, adding another six to nine months.

GAO 2026 Duplication Report: $774 Billion Saved Since 2011, $100 Billion Still on the Table, and $186 Billion in Improper Payments

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Since 2011 GAO has published an annual report on duplication, overlap and fragmentation in the federal government: programmes that do the same thing, agencies that trip over each other, and money that could be saved by fixing it. The sixteenth edition came out on 12 May 2026.

The headline number is big. GAO estimates that acting on its past recommendations has produced about $774.3 billion in financial benefits since 2011, up about $49.3 billion since the previous report. GAO calls these rough estimates.