Views in Support of H.R. 3168

GAO presented its views on H.R. 3168 which will require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to prepare an annual report consolidating available data on the geographic distribution of federal funds at the state, county, subcounty, and congressional district levels through grants and procurements. Passage of this bill would authorize publication of the Consolidated Federal Funds Report through fiscal year 1988. GAO believes that there is a need for a comprehensive and consistent source of data in the geographical distribution of federal funds that can assist Congress and state and local governments in providing information on how congressional budget allocation decisions and shifts in federal spending affect localities, states, and regions. GAO found that: (1) some users indicated a greater need for program-level data rather than data aggregated into general categories such as grants and direct payments; (2) some users needed nonprogrammatic categories such as procurements and salaries and wages; and (3) the lack of substate data on programs such as the Food Stamp Program and Medicaid were of particular concern. GAO believes that the loss of detailed data is due to data sources not distributing funds to actual recipients and not reporting geographic location in a standardized geographic code; however, reporting at the county level could be improved by obtaining fund distributions directly from the states. Though some problems exist in reporting funds at various geographic levels, GAO believes that this report would be the only comprehensive data source which would attempt to show the distribution of the majority of federal funds. Therefore, GAO supports the continuation of this type of statistical data through the passage of H.R. 3168.