2013 budget request: Agency-by-agency breakdown

When the White House releases the federal budget request each year, it\'s an opportunity for federal agencies and departments to list their priorities, announce...

When the White House releases the federal budget request each year, it’s an opportunity for federal agencies and departments to list their priorities, announce new initiatives and detail the programs — along with the funding levels to support those programs— each will undertake. But this year, in a nod to the climate of budgetary uncertainty and a Congress increasingly looking toward cuts, all of the agency budgets not only detail how they will spend money in fiscal-year 2013, but how they will save money.

Phrases and terms, such as “cutting … costs,” “making tough choices,” “streamlining,” “efficiencies,” litter the official 2013 White House budget released Monday. The Health and Human Services Department, for example, aims to save hundreds of millions of dollars through more robust efforts to cut back on waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Treasury Department has proposed consolidating two departments — the Bureau of Public Debt and the Financial Management Service — into a single agency.

Below, find an agency-by-agency funding breakdown of the official 2013 budget request. (2013 numbers, which are approximate and represent proposed discretionary spending, are compared to the equivalent 2012 spending estimate).

Agriculture Department

2013 request: $23 billion / 2012 estimate: $23.8 billion

  • Includes a $6.1 billion investment in renewable and clean-energy initiatives
  • Aims to “modernize services” by redirecting staff to “areas of greatest need”

Commerce Department

2013 request: $8 billion / 2012 estimate: $7.7 billion

  • Overall departmental reductions will be made to administrative costs and overlapping grant programs
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology: $708 million — a $56 million cut compared to 2012 requested levels
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $5.2 billion — a slight increase from the 2012 request

Defense Department

2013 request: $525.4 billion / 2012 estimate: $530.5 billion

  • “Reprioritizes investments” in certain areas, such as unmanned aerial aircraft and tactical vehicles, but will terminate “unnecessary and lower-priority programs,” such as the C-27 airlift aircraft.
  • “Sustains and enhances” DoD’s cybersecurity operations and funds the department’s support for the Homeland Security Department’s efforts to protect government networks.
  • Provides 1.7 percent increase in basic military pay in calendar-year 2013.
  • Introduces new TRICARE copays and fees as well as increases to TRICARE Prime enrollment fees.
  • Institutes “modest annual fees” for TRICARE recipients older than 65, when they transition to Medicare coverage.
  • Requests two additional rounds of base realignment and closure (BRAC).
  • DoD plans have statements of budgetary resources for general funds “audit ready” by 2014 — three years ahead of the 2017 deadline
  • Includes $1 billion for energy conservation — More than double what was spent in 2010.

Education Department

2013 request: $69.9 billion / 2012 estimate: $68.1 billion

  • Budget makes “targeted reductions” to some programs, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Energy Department

2013 request: $27.2 billion / 2012 estimate: $26.3 billion

  • Increases funding for “priority areas,” such as clean energy, research and development and advanced manufacturing.
  • Includes $2.3 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) as “part of a broad strategy that emphasizes clean energy and advanced manufacturing.”

Environmental Protection Agency

2013 request: $8.3 billion / 2012 estimate: $8.5 billion

  • Achieves savings through ending “outdated, underperforming and overlapping programs.” The agency predicts a savings of $50 million in 2013.
  • Makes “targeted reductions” to the Hazardous Substance Superfund Account and reduces the amount provided for state funding.

Health and Human Services Department

2013 request: $69.7 billion / 2012 estimate: $76.2 billion

  • Maintains funding for the National Institutes of Health at $31 billion.
  • Supports implementation of the Affordable Care Act health care law.
  • $610 million in funding to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid.

Homeland Security Department

2013 request: $39.5 billion / 2012 estimate: $39.7 billion

  • Citizenship and Immigration Services funding: $143 million
  • U.S. Secret Service funding: $1.6 billion
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding: $5.3 billion
  • Transportation Security Administrationfunding: $5.1 billion
  • National Protectorate and Programs Directorate funding: $1.2 billion
  • U.S. Coast Guard: $8.3 billion
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency funding: $4.5 billion
  • $769 million for cybersecurity operations.
  • Makes $853 million in cuts to “administrative categories,” such as travel, overtime and fleet management.

Housing and Urban Development Department

2013 request: $35.3 billion / 2012 estimate: $38.2 billion

  • Includes $2.3 billion investment to help end homelessness among veterans.

Interior Department

2013 request: $11.9 billion / 2012 estimate: $11.5 billion

  • Plans to save more than $200 million from 2010 levels through “administrative efficiencies” and cutting spending on travel, printing and supplies.
  • Reduces construction funding by $49.4 million

Justice Department

2013 request: $27.1 billion / 2012 estimate: $27.2 billion

  • FBI funding: $8 billion
  • Drug Enforcement Administration funding: $2 billion
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives funding: $1.1 billion.
  • Savings are to be achieved by focusing on “uniquely federal responsibilities” and streamlining programs and operations.
  • Fully funds the National Security Division.
  • $5 million increase in funding for investigating intellectual property crime.

Labor Department

2013 request: $11.9 billion / 2012 estimate: $13.2 billion

  • Includes savings from administrative efficiencies, consolidating regional offices and eliminating overlapping programs
  • The budget proposes “adopting a leaner, more efficient approach” for five particular offices: the Women’s Bureau, OSHA, the Office of the Solicitor, the Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Office of Public Affairs
  • Aims to bolster the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

NASA

2013 request: $17.7 billion / 2012 estimate: $17.8 billion

  • Achieves savings through ending “outdated, underperforming and overlapping programs.” The agency predicts a savings of $50 million in 2013.
  • Funds a lower-cost program of robotic Mars exploration and invests in new space technologies, such as laser communications.
  • Streamlines agency operations with a goal of $200 million in savings.
  • The budget will continue to allow NASA to replace or renovate older buildings. Now, more than 80 percent of NASA buildings “are beyond their design life,” the request states.

National Intelligence Program

2013 request: $52.6 billion / 2012 estimate: Not released

  • Includes support for military operations in Afghanistan
  • Bolsters cybersecurity capabilities “to help protect federal networks, critical infrastructure and America’s economy”
  • Includes funding to modernize the IT infrastructure of the intelligence community
  • Will reduce the number of contractors and freeze personnel levels for federal employees working in the IC

Overseas Contingency Operations (DoD/State Department)

2013 request: $96.7 billion / 2012 estimate: $126.6 billion

  • For unified operations of DoD, State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
  • The reduction year-over-year “primarily reflects” the savings from the end of military operations in Iraq and the drawing down of forces in Afghanistan.

Small Business Administration

2013 request: $947 million / 2012 estimate: $917 million

  • Includes $26 billion in loan guarantees for small businesses
  • Provides $6 million to implement BusinessUSA.gov, an interagency efforts designed to provide small businesses with one-stop shopping to a range of federal services.
  • Includes $19 million to the Office of the Inspector General to bolster oversight activities and help prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
  • Aims for $12 million over five years in savings by transitioning to cloud computing-based model for its IT network and applications.

Social Security Administration

2013 request: $11.7 billion / 2012 estimate: $11.7 billion

  • Provides $1 billion for program integrity efforts, such as reducing improper payments.
  • Aims to reduce the backlog for processing claims.

State Department

2013 request: $51.6 billion / 2012 estimate: $50.8 billion

  • USAID funding: $1.4 billion
  • The budget aims to continue to reduce overhead costs and make buildings more efficient.
  • The agency will reduce travel, printing supplies and other costs below 2010 and increase the use of phone and video-conferencing.
  • State Department agencies will also seek to reduce the use of contractors for management-support services by reducing contract spending on such services by as much as 15 percent below 2010 levels.

Transportation Department

2013 request: $13.8 billion / 2012 estimate: $13.7 billion

  • Invests a total of $74 billion in discretionary and mandatory spending.
  • Includes $50 billion in immediate investments for infrastructure projects, such as improving bridges, roads and transit systems.
  • Includes reductions in the airport grants program and reduces the annual grant to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority by $15 million.

Treasury Department

2013 request: $12.6 billion / 2012 estimate: $13.2 billion

  • IRS funding: $12 billion.
  • Overall budget would save $100 million through “efficiency initiatives,” consistent with the governmentwide Campaign to Cut Waste.
  • To streamline operations, the proposal Would consolidate the Bureau of the Public Debt and the Financial Management Service into a single agency by 2014.

Veterans Affairs Department

2013 request: $61 billion / 2012 estimate: $58.5 billion

  • Includes ongoing efforts to combat veteran homelessness and increase medical care.
  • Aims to bolster “efficiency and responsiveness” by continuing work on a paperless system for benefits claims processing. Includes $128 million for the Veterans Benefit Management System

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