What kind of spending it is
Most federal money is not a contract. In FY2025, direct payments to individuals were 61.3% of obligations and contracts were 14.7%.
The mix in FY2025
1 more column on a wider screen
| Instrument | Obligations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Direct payments | $3.3 trillion$3,251,230,712,307 | 61.3% |
| Grants | $1.2 trillion$1,244,955,168,318 | 23.5% |
| Contracts | $778.0 billion$778,045,402,607 | 14.7% |
| Other | $17.4 billion$17,358,976,470 | 0.3% |
| Insurance | $8.7 billion$8,724,866,817 | 0.2% |
| Loans | $207.4 million$207,403,034 | < 0.1% |
How the mix has moved
Insurance reached $1.4 trillion in FY2013 and has not been near it since
One line per instrument. They are drawn together to show their relative size and shape, not to be added: loans and insurance are face value rather than money, and a contract and a benefit payment are different things.
The insurance line is why a chart of the total falls at FY2014 — that fall is a change in what was reported, not in what was spent.
FY2026 is still open and is not drawn: its row in the table holds the obligations recorded so far, not a full twelve months.
Source: USAspending
About this chart
The figures
| Fiscal year | Direct payments | Grants | Contracts | Other | Insurance | Loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | $1,104,102,775,162 | $391,468,876,158 | $536,654,224,628 | $6,040,276,606 | $6,317,313,811 | $322,330,028 |
| 2009 | $1,279,251,950,781 | $671,604,490,819 | $534,923,332,796 | $7,939,386,755 | $444,024,933,774 | $710,194,925 |
| 2010 | $1,085,908,981,450 | $627,091,322,038 | $534,224,842,927 | $3,515,014,366 | $237,825,679,719 | $2,967,466,315 |
| 2011 | $920,978,694,843 | $575,255,861,054 | $532,959,663,218 | $8,147,165,758 | $1,273,381,128,551 | $2,894,162,202 |
| 2012 | $1,520,186,478,800 | $542,698,854,497 | $514,195,004,377 | $8,360,986,734 | $1,272,083,758,282 | -$249,316,120 |
| 2013 | $1,603,725,255,926 | $531,679,880,767 | $457,730,568,868 | $9,895,844,695 | $1,363,180,980,213 | $1,926,673,664 |
| 2014 | $1,670,397,795,575 | $603,380,187,685 | $439,771,913,973 | $58,171,847,893 | $8,744,467,174 | $6,136,585,075 |
| 2015 | $1,805,307,574,646 | $626,378,116,980 | $430,490,497,954 | $67,663,141,737 | $6,562,650,611 | $4,305,992,677 |
| 2016 | $1,917,378,827,311 | $674,093,840,099 | $463,230,551,866 | $77,321,803,753 | $6,709,717,458 | $2,312,998,666 |
| 2017 | $1,948,137,545,394 | $716,652,760,784 | $500,823,930,293 | $71,580,365,910 | $11,550,620,297 | $1,870,704,488 |
| 2018 | $1,983,898,356,849 | $752,741,923,861 | $545,385,613,587 | $72,650,656,977 | $16,669,729,289 | $5,559,396,860 |
| 2019 | $2,132,611,925,705 | $761,349,525,862 | $578,005,704,399 | $74,796,950,067 | $8,459,217,669 | -$6,613,851,581 |
| 2020 | $2,735,289,011,004 | $965,648,195,014 | $657,231,620,662 | $76,855,448,046 | $11,197,508,512 | $549,250,784,852 |
| 2021 | $2,929,390,629,121 | $1,361,294,438,439 | $632,769,538,972 | $87,609,279,397 | $13,085,877,477 | $274,802,340,082 |
| 2022 | $2,645,254,121,334 | $1,133,626,482,586 | $680,130,413,800 | $106,886,348,854 | $27,285,665,398 | $5,472,522,436 |
| 2023 | $2,856,969,767,799 | $1,138,676,678,888 | $745,945,181,330 | $62,171,871,978 | $19,365,424,772 | -$5,662,962,426 |
| 2024 | $2,942,856,962,887 | $1,211,510,900,044 | $740,124,284,146 | $31,559,002,495 | $7,162,667,986 | -$1,822,826,641 |
| 2025 | $3,251,230,712,307 | $1,244,955,168,318 | $778,045,402,607 | $17,358,976,470 | $8,724,866,817 | $207,403,034 |
| 2026 | $2,996,171,307,595 | $1,176,939,183,685 | $670,725,363,826 | $11,771,875,982 | $5,770,546,086 | -$4,946,555,577 |
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What this data cannot show
- These are the publisher’s own groupings of its award type codes. They are not equivalent quantities: loans and insurance are face value, a contract is a purchase, and a direct payment is a benefit paid to a person.
- A group can be negative in a year. That means deobligations exceeded obligations for that instrument, which is a real fact about the year rather than a missing figure.
Related
Sources
- USAspending API v2 — U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service · Public domain — U.S. Government work · retrieved September 23, 2026
Compiled automatically from USAspending API v2 by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built
Data retrieved