EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, APRIL 14, 1999 (WEDNESDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-68
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: pio@census.gov
Gerard Keffer
301-457-1522
1998 Federal Domestic Spending Reached $1.5 Trillion,
Social Security Topped $400 Billion,
Census Bureau Reports
The federal government distributed $1.5 trillion for domestic benefits,
subsidies, grants, goods and services, and salaries and wages in fiscal
year 1998, according to two reports released today by the Commerce
Department's Census Bureau. That represents a 3.4 percent increase over
1997.
"The main reasons for the increase were payments for disability and
retirement, grants and procurement contracts," said Gerard Keffer, chief
of the Census Bureau's Federal Programs Branch.
Federal direct payments for disability and retirement totaled $507
billion in 1998 a 3.7 percent increase over 1997. Spending on Social
Security alone totaled $403 billion in 1998 a 3.9 percent increase over
1997. Other direct payments reached $328 billion in 1998. These were
followed by grants ($269 billion), procurement contracts ($209 billion)
and federal government salaries and wages ($170 billion).
California received the most federal funds of any state ($162 billion),
followed by New York ($100 billion), Texas ($92 billion), Florida ($84
billion) and Pennsylvania ($67 billion).
At the county or county equivalent level, New York City led the list
($43.1 billion) followed by Los Angeles County, Calif. ($41.9 billion),
Cook County, Ill. ($24.1 billion), San Diego County, Calif. ($17.4
billion) and Harris County, Texas ($14.4 billion).
New York City and Los Angeles County received the most federal funds of
any local area, topping 42 states.
Federal spending per capita topped $8,000 in two states Virginia
($8,221) and Maryland ($8,094). Alaska ($7,763) was third, followed by New
Mexico ($7,446) and Hawaii ($7,076).
Defense Department domestic spending, which includes payroll, defense
contracts and grants, and military pensions, totaled $226 billion in 1998,
a 3.8 percent increase over 1997.
The top five states in Defense Department spending in 1998 were
California ($29 billion), Virginia ($23 billion), Texas ($16 billion),
Florida ($12 billion) and Maryland ($9 billion). For counties or county
equivalent areas the top five were Los Angeles County, Calif. ($7.6
billion), San Diego County, Calif. ($7.1 billion), Fairfax County, Va.
($5.6 billion), St. Louis City, Mo. ($3.9 billion) and Bexar County, Texas
($3.3 billion).
The reports, Consolidated Federal Funds Report, Fiscal Year 1998,
State and County Areas, CFFR/98, and Federal Aid to States for Fiscal
Year, cover most domestic spending by the federal government,
with the major exception being interest on the federal debt.
Federal Aid to States contains only detailed agency and program-level
grant data formerly published in the Federal Expenditures by State report.
The Consolidated Federal Funds report is now the sole source of state and
local area data on the majority of direct federal expenditures or
obligations, as well as data on federal loan and insurance programs.
The data in this report are not subject to sampling variability. As in
all surveys, the data are subject to nonsampling error, which includes
errors of nonresponse, response and processing.
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The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
