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3. Where the data is, and how far to trust it

The records

Record What it reports Who publishes it Source
SF 133, Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources For every open TAS, expired and unexpired, cumulative from the start of the fiscal year: whether budgetary resources are available for obligation, whether they have been obligated, how obligated balances changed, and outlays. It lets OMB monitor the money it apportioned on the SF 132. Agencies, through Treasury's GTAS system, at the end of each quarter and also for November, July and August A-11 sec. 130, PDF pp. 479-481
USAspending File A (account balances) Total budgetary resources, obligations and outlays by TAS, from agency financial systems, validated against GTAS Agencies, monthly (quarterly for some); usaspending.gov USAspending glossary
File B The same spending by TAS, program activity and object class as above USAspending glossary
File C Award spending only, linking each award to the account that funded it as above USAspending glossary
Disaster Emergency Fund Codes Tag spending of emergency and disaster funding to the law that provided it; e.g. "N" = the CARES Act (P.L. 116-136), "Z" = emergency and "1" = non-emergency funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58). Agencies report the code as a GTAS attribute. OMB (M-18-08, expanded by M-20-21, April 2020); USAspending USAspending glossary and DEFC list; OMB M-20-21, PDF p. 5
Monthly Treasury Statement Receipts by source, outlays by agency, deficit financing and trust fund transactions Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service; fiscaldata.treasury.gov Fiscal Data MTS page
Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances Annual; "recognized as the official publication of receipts and outlays"; Part Three details appropriations, outlays and balances by account Treasury Treasury Combined Statement page
Antideficiency Act reports Each violation an agency reports, and an annual compilation GAO GAO ADA page; B-337853
Trustees Reports Income, spending, reserves and 75-year projections for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds SSA and CMS, for the Boards of Trustees Sections 5-7

How far to trust it

  • Account totals (SF 133, GTAS, the Monthly Treasury Statement and the Combined Statement) are the government's books of record for budget execution. The Combined Statement is the official publication of receipts and outlays; other federal reports with similar figures are to be consistent with it (Treasury Combined Statement page).
  • The financial statements are not auditable as a whole. GAO could not express an opinion on the accrual-based consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government for fiscal year 2025, as for every year since 1997 (GAO audit report in the FY2025 Financial Report, PDF pp. 1, 3). It also disclaimed on the sustainability statements (social insurance and long-term fiscal projections), mainly because of uncertainty over projected Medicare cost growth (PDF p. 1).
  • The Department of Defense received a disclaimer of opinion on its fiscal year 2025 statements, released December 18, 2025: its eighth annual full audit and its eighth disclaimer (CRS IF12627, p. 1). The DoD Inspector General cited 26 material weaknesses (DODIG-2026-032, PDF p. 4).
  • Antideficiency Act reports are self-reported. GAO compiles what agencies report and says it has not audited the information (B-337853, PDF p. 1).

What govspends can build from it

  • Spent versus provided, per account: the SF 133 or USAspending File A, one row per TAS, followed over each TAS's life (Section 2).
  • Funding by law: Disaster Emergency Fund Codes for emergency and supplemental appropriations.
  • Mandatory programs: actual outlays (Monthly Treasury Statement) against projections (CBO baseline, Trustees Reports) (Section 4).
  • Authorizations: CBO's expired-authorizations report, which is published as a PDF with tables, not as data (Section 1).