Comments on Whether Thrift Savings Fund Transactions Should Be Considered Federal Government Transactions

GAO provided information on whether the Thrift Savings Fund should be included in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 1989 fiscal year (FY) budget totals. GAO held that: (1) since the monies in the Fund are owned and controlled by the program participants and not the federal government, the Fund should not be treated as an on-budget account and therefore included in OMB's budget submission; (2) while OMB's treatment of the Fund as an on-budget account had no impact in the 1988 sequester percentages, it could have an impact on future sequester percentages; (3) in FY 1990 and subsequent years, deficit reductions under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 will be based on the amount by which deficit estimates exceed specified deficit target amounts and, if the Fund continues to accumulate assets, keeping it on-budget would decrease the deficit estimates which, in turn, would affect the required deficit reductions and sequester percentages; and (4) the Department of the Treasury is also using OMB's on-budget treatment of the Fund in its financial reporting, which would adversely affect Treasury's totals for the government.