Submitted February 1, 2010 Submitted to 111th Congress | Submitted by Barack Obama | |
Total revenue $2.567 trillion (requested)
$2.303 trillion (actual)
15.0% of GDP (actual) Total expenditures $3.834 trillion (requested)
$3.603 trillion (actual)
23.4% of GDP (actual) Deficit $1.645 trillion (requested)
10.9% of GDP
$1.30 trillion (actual)
8.5% of GDP (actual) | ||
The 2011 United States federal budget is the United States federal budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2011, which is October 2010 – September 2011. The budget is the subject of a spending request by President Barack Obama. The actual appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 had to be authorized by the full Congress before it could take effect, according to the United States budget process.
Contents
- Budget proposals
- Research and development funding
- Legislation
- Major initiatives
- Total revenues and spending
- References
No budget was passed by the September 30 deadline, and the government was funded by a series of seven continuing resolutions continuing funding at or near 2010 levels. The budget negotiations culminated in early April 2011, with a tense legislative standoff leading to speculation that the nation would face its first government shutdown since 1995. However, a deal containing $38.5 billion in cuts from 2010 funding levels was reached with just hours remaining before the deadline. The 2011 budget was enacted on April 15, 2011, as Public Law 112-10, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011.
Budget proposals
President Barack Obama proposed his 2011 budget during February 2010. He has indicated that jobs, health care, clean energy, education, and infrastructure will be priorities. Total requested spending is $3.83 trillion and the federal deficit is forecast to be $1.56 trillion in 2010 and $1.27 trillion in 2011. Total debt is budgeted to increase from $11.9 trillion in FY2009, to $13.8 trillion in FY2010, and $15.1 trillion in FY2011.
Research and development funding
There was considerable debate on funding levels for science research by the federal government. The Obama administration's policy has been to support increases in research funding levels, including doubling the budgets of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE SC), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from their 2006 levels by 2017, and President Obama strongly featured innovation as a means for revitalizing the United States economy in his 2011 State of the Union Address. The Obama administration's fiscal year 2013 budget request included increases from the FY 2011 budget by $232 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $340 million for the NSF, $1.8 billion for DOE discretionary spending, and $104 million for NIST. Although there has been a budget decrease for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) by $192 million (1.1%) since 2011.
However, the Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives has stated a focus on the principles of deficit reduction and fiscal conservatism, on which they campaigned in the 2010 elections where they made large gains in representation in Congress. House Republicans promote their plan as the largest reduction in discretionary spending in the history of Congress, saying that they have "weeded out excessive, unnecessary, and wasteful spending, making tough choices to prioritize programs based on their effectiveness and benefit to the American people" with the goal of "returning our nation to a sustainable financial path." They have thus proposed deep cuts to science research budgets, including cuts in fiscal year 2011 of $1.6 billion from the NIH, $400 million from the NSF, and $900 million from DOE SC.
The deal reached on the 2011 budget in early April 2011 resulted in modest cuts to science programs, much less than the earlier proposals by House Republicans. NIH funding was cut by about $310 million, the NSF by about $68 million, and DOE SC by $35 million.
Legislation
Beginning in September 2010, Congress passed a series of continuing resolutions to fund the government.
It was widely anticipated that a government shutdown on April 8, 2011 was possible if a budget resolution or a seventh continuing resolution was not passed by the expiration of the sixth continuing resolution on April 8, 2011, which would have caused the furlough of 800,000 out of 2 million civilian federal employees. However, a deal was reached with just hours remaining before the deadline, averting the shutdown. The deal included $38.5 billion in cuts from what had been budgeted for 2010, in addition to another $10 billion in cuts that had been imposed in some of the continuing resolutions. However, the April 13 Congressional Budget Office estimate showed that, compared with then-current spending rates, the spending bill would cut federal outlays from non-war accounts by just $352 million through Sept. 30. About $8 billion in immediate cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid were offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending.
Major initiatives
The following initiatives were enacted in the final budget legislation:
The following major changes were proposed to federal programs, but not necessarily enacted:
Total revenues and spending
Total receipts (in billions of dollars):
In the Obama administration's initial spending request, the federal budget for 2011 was originally projected at $3.83 trillion in total spending.
The projected 2011 gross domestic product is listed at $13.519 trillion (in 2005 dollars).
As of January 2011, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that if current laws remain unchanged, the federal budget will show a deficit of close to $1.5 trillion, or 9.8 percent of GDP. The CBO projects total revenues of $2.228 trillion and total outlays of $3.708 trillion for a deficit of $1.48 trillion for 2011. The deficits in CBO's baseline projections drop markedly over the next few years as a share of output and average 3.1 percent of GDP from 2014 to 2021. Those projections, however, are based on the assumption that tax and spending policies unfold as specified in current law. Consequently, they understate the budget deficits that would occur if many policies currently in place were continued, rather than allowed to expire as scheduled under current law.
On February 14, 2011, President Obama released his 2012 federal budget request. The report updated the projected 2011 deficit to $1.590 trillion. This is based on estimated revenues of $2.228 trillion and outlays of $3.818 trillion.
The enacted 2011 budget called for $2.314 trillion in receipts and $3.630 trillion in outlays, according to the September 1, 2011 Mid-Session Review.
The 2011 Financial Report of the United States Government was released on December 23, 2011, showing a net operating cost and cash-based budget deficit for the year of $1.3 trillion. According to the Government Accountability Office, the 'accrual deficit provides more information on the longer-term implications of the government's annual operations'. Gross costs fell from $4,472 billion in 2010 to $3,998 billion, largely due to the release of accounting provisions (estimates of future liabilities), while total taxes and other revenues rose from $2,217 billion to $2,364 billion. The GAO was unable to provide an audit opinion on the 2011 financial statements due to 'widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations'. As in 2010, the GAO cited as the principal obstacle to its provision of an audit opinion 'serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense that made its financial statements unauditable', highlighting also recurrent issues at the Department of Homeland Security.