The Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) is a presentation of data on federal government expenditures or obligations in state, county, and subcounty areas of the United States, including the District of Columbia and U.S. Outlying Areas. CFFR contains statistics on the geographic distribution of federal program expenditures, using data submitted by federal departments and agencies. These data have been consolidated and tabulated in a standard format by the U.S. Census Bureau under the auspices of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, for presentation in publications and electronic form. The publications are:

• Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2004 (State and County Areas)
• Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2004

Data also are available on CD-ROM and on Internet. Information on publications and CD-ROM’s appears in the section, ‘‘Availability of Data’’ at the end of this Introduction.

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) covers Federal Government expenditures or obligations for the object categories listed below. For fiscal year 2004, amounts reported totaled $2.2 trillion for the direct expenditure or obligation categories, and $1.0 trillion for other federal assistance (loans and insurance programs):

• Retirement and disability ($667 billion)
• Other direct payments ($470 billion)
• Grants ($460 billion)
• Procurement contracts ($340 billion)
• Salaries and wages ($226 billion)
• Direct loans ($30 billion)
• Guaranteed or insured loans ($229 billion)
• Insurance ($773 billion)

Dollar amounts reported under these categories can represent either actual expenditures or obligations. Users should be aware of the differences in this coverage, which varies in accordance with the data, as described later under ‘‘Table Descriptions and Data Sources’’ and in Appendix D. As a general guide, the grants and procurement data in this report represent obligated funds, while direct payments, salaries and wages represent actual expenditures (outlays). Data on loan and insurance programs generally represent the contingent liability of the Federal Government.

Certain categories of federal government spending are intentionally excluded from this report. These include such items as interest paid on federal government debt, travel expenses when not provided under procurement contract, and international payments and foreign aid. The financial activity of all federal government agencies is covered, with exceptions for those agencies that do not submit data to any of the federal statistical reporting systems that serve as sources of information for the CFFR. Conceptual or functional exclusions and the agencies not covered in CFFR are discussed below, under the heading ‘‘Amounts Excluded From CFFR Coverage.’’