Obligations vs outlays

Every dollar figure on this site is an obligation unless it says otherwise. In USAspending's own definition: "When awarding funding, the U.S. government enters a binding agreement called an obligation. The government promises to spend the money, either immediately or in the future." And: "An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out, not just promised to be paid ("obligated")."

Why obligations

Obligations are recorded award by award, transaction by transaction, with a recipient, a place of performance, an industry code and a date. That is what makes it possible to say how much went to a given organisation or county. Outlays are tracked at the level of Treasury accounts and, for awards, are reported by agencies only in aggregate and with a lag, so award-level outlay figures are sparse.

Three different numbers

• Fiscal-year obligations: what an agency committed in that year, including reductions (de-obligations) that can make a year negative. Used for every trend, rank and per-resident rate here.
• Award value: the total obligated to one award to date, often across several years. Used in the "largest awards" tables and the monthly award lists.
• Outlays: money paid. Not shown on this site; USAspending's agency and account pages carry them.

Loans

A loan's face value is not spending. USAspending explains: "Since loans are expected to be paid back, in budgetary terms, the face value of a loan is not considered spending and is not included in any obligation or outlay figure." The budget records the subsidy cost, the expected loss to the government, and that is what the fiscal-year figures here count. Award lists show face value and label it.