Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2024 Provisions for Federal Agencies
Fast Facts
As part of FY 2024 appropriations, members of Congress could request to designate a certain amount of funding for specific projects in their communities.
While agencies often have discretion over how they award funds, Congress has directed them to distribute these funds to the designated recipients. We're tracking these funds to help ensure transparency.
FY 2024 appropriations included about $14.6 billion for 8,098 projects. This report covers:
Which agencies received this funding
Funding purposes, project locations, and recipient types
How long the funds are available to spend
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 and Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, and their accompanying joint explanatory statements, designated about $14.6 billion for 8,098 Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending (CPF/CDS) provisions for fiscal year 2024. This compared to $15.3 billion for 7,233 provisions for fiscal year 2023. The provisions designate funds for particular recipients to use for specific projects in their communities.
For fiscal year 2024, Congress appropriated funds to 19 federal agencies—the same agencies as in fiscal year 2023—to administer projects using the designated funds. The provisions were for projects with a broad range of purposes, such as community and regional development, natural resources and environment, and transportation.
For fiscal year 2024, the patterns of designated funding to various recipient types—such as higher education organizations—and locations of projects with designated funding were generally proportional to the patterns for the prior year.
Fiscal Year 2024 Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending by Location
When Congress appropriated funds for fiscal year 2024, it specified a time period applicable to each appropriation from which funds were designated for specific recipients. For example, about 65 percent of the funds are available for agencies to obligate (e.g., by signing a contract or awarding a grant) for a fixed period, ranging from 1 to 5 years. The remaining 35 percent of funds are not time limited; the funds are available for obligation until expended. These percentages are similar percentages to those for fiscal year 2023. Once the period of availability expires, agencies generally have 5 years to expend or outlay the funds.
Why GAO Did This Study
As part of recent appropriations legislation, Members of Congress could request to designate funding through legislative provisions for specific projects in their communities. Congress has continued this process for fiscal year 2024. These provisions are called “Community Project Funding” in the House of Representatives and “Congressionally Directed Spending” in the U.S. Senate.
Congress included a provision in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 for GAO to review agencies' implementation of CPF/CDS provisions. This report provides an overview of the fiscal year 2024 CPF/CDS provisions. Specifically, it describes (1) the agencies that were tasked with administering these funds; (2) the purpose of the funds, types of designated recipients, and location of projects; and (3) the period of availability of the funds.
GAO analyzed data from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024; the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024; and these acts' accompanying joint explanatory statements to describe the agencies designated funds and the purposes, recipients, and locations of the funds. GAO compared this information to the corresponding information from GAO's prior work on fiscal year 2023 provisions.
For more information, contact Jeff Arkin at (202) 512-6806 or arkinj@gao.gov or Allison Bawden at (202) 512-3841 or bawdena@gao.gov.