White House Spending: FY 2022 Certificated Expenditures of the President and Vice President Were for Authorized Purposes
Fast Facts
The President and Vice President of the United States are legally allowed to spend funds for certain specified purposes—e.g., official travel, residential maintenance, entertainment—and account for them solely with "official certificates." Spending that's authorized this way is known as certificated expenditures.
We examined these certificated expenditures for fiscal year 2022 and determined that they were spent for the purposes authorized under the relevant law.
Highlights
What GAO Found
GAO found that the certificated (officially documented) expenditures by the President and Vice President of the United States for fiscal year 2022 were spent for the purposes authorized by law. These expenditures—$16,433,006 for the President and $89,727 for the Vice President—were reflected in the underlying accounting records and attested to by the Chief Financial Officer of the Executive Office of the President. GAO found no exceptions in the expenditures tested.
Why GAO Did This Study
In this report, GAO inspected and verified fiscal year 2022 certificated expenditures of the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States. Sections 105(d) and 106(b) of Title 3 of the United States Code authorize the President and the Vice President to expend appropriated funds for certain specified purposes that may be accounted for solely on their certificates and as they determine, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law.
Specifically, the President is authorized to expend appropriated funds for the care, maintenance, repair, alteration, refurnishing, improvement, air conditioning, heating, and lighting (including electric power and fixtures) of the Executive Residence at the White House. Further, the President and the Vice President are authorized to expend appropriated funds for official entertainment expenses of the President and the Vice President and for subsistence expenses of persons in the government service while traveling on official business in connection with the travel of the President and the Vice President. Sections 105(d) and 106(b) also authorize GAO to examine records related to these expenditures for the purpose of verifying that the expenditures were used for authorized purposes. In addition, GAO is to report to Congress its verification and any amounts not expended for authorized purposes.
To meet this objective, GAO interviewed Executive Office of the President officials, reviewed the fiscal year 2022 independent auditor's report, performed analytical procedures, selected statistical samples of certificated expenditures of the President and Vice President, and verified these expenditures against the underlying supporting documentation in the Executive Office of the President's accounting records.
For more information, contact Cheryl Clark at (202) 512-3406 or clarkce@gao.gov.