How much of the federal budget is discretionary spending?

The US government spent $6.2 trillion in total in 2023, with $1.7 trillion on discretionary spending, $3.8 trillion on mandatory spending, and $659 billion on net interest. Discretionary spending includes funding for defense, education, transportation, and scientific research.

What is discretionary spending?

Federal spending can be categorized as either discretionary spending or mandatory spending.

Discretionary spending requires action from Congress to continue. In other words, Congress must establish and regularly fund discretionary programs. Otherwise, they end.

This funding process, called appropriations, involves Congress passing laws and the president signing them to authorize agencies to spend a fixed amount of money for specific purposes over a set period, typically one to three years. Once these funds run out, the department cannot spend more unless Congress approves additional funding.

Federal outlays, which are expenses from budget authority, can occur over short periods (such as salaries) or long periods (such as research or construction projects). Discretionary outlays each year include funds from both current and previous appropriation acts.

How is discretionary spending allocated?

Discretionary spending is split into defense and nondefense spending.

Defense spending is the largest single category of discretionary spending, totaling $806 billion in fiscal year 2023. Within defense spending, the two biggest categories were operations and maintenance ($317 billion) and military personnel ($173 billion). These categories support maintaining and acquiring new weapons systems, as well as the salaries and benefits of military personnel.

The remaining $316 billion was spent on procurement ($142 billion), research, development, test, and evaluation ($122 billion), and other costs ($52 billion).

Procurement funding supports modification to weapons already in service, and the purchase of new equipment. This covers aircrafts, ships, missiles, armored vehicles, munitions, space satellites, and more.

Research and development funding includes testing technology, engineering, prototyping, field testing, and laboratory spaces.

The “other” category includes spending on the Department of Energy’s atomic energy activities, the Department of Defense’s military construction and family housing, and some defense-related activities by other agencies.

Nondefense spending supports various sectors, including education, transportation, veterans' benefits, law enforcement, national parks, disaster relief, foreign aid, and more. The three biggest categories are transportation ($155 billion), veterans’ benefits ($131 billion), and education, training, employment, and social services ($125 billion).

Discretionary funding for veterans includes services such medical services, community care, facilities, medical and prosthetic research, and more. Education funding supports programs like special education, adult education, financial aid (including Pell Grants), and institutional development. Transportation funding supports projects such as highway construction, safety improvement projects, building transportation in disadvantaged and rural communities, among others.

The “other” category ($59 billion) includes spending on general government, administrative costs for Medicare and Social Security, agriculture, energy, and commerce and housing credit programs.

For more on government budget data, explore the USAFacts State of the Union in Numbers and get the facts every week by signing up for our newsletter.