The federal government spent more than $6 trillion for the first time ever. This is true with numbers as of the end of August, so there’s still a month remaining in the government’s fiscal year, which ended on September 30th.
This type of spending is amidst the backdrop of a deficit that’s currently running at $3 trillion for the year. That’s the highest deficit ever, and almost double the second highest year, 2009. A good deal of that spending is directly related to the pandemic. In fact, a non-partisan group estimates that the government has spent or committed to $2.2 trillion in COVD-19 relief.
A few of the agencies that have had the biggest impact on the spending numbers are the Department of Health and Human Services which has spent $1.3 trillion, the Social Security Administration which has spent $1.2 trillion, and the Defense Department which has spent $690 billion.
Because money has already been appropriated, it’s expected that September will end up being a huge month of spending as agencies attempt to get through their budgets before they expire. It’s no surprise that this type of spending is being seen in a year with the type of economic turmoil that was last seen in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis.
State and local governments are receiving some of this record spend through bills like the CARES Act. We’ve previously written about how some counties have been able to use these funds for some pretty interesting projects with immediate impact that are also forward thinking. This process hasn’t been as quick as some would have hoped, but the disbursements have come.
While it’s safe to say these funds are important, particularly in bridging the gap where revenues have fallen during the pandemic, there’s still uncertainty ahead in terms of tax revenue. Many locations are seeing revenue significantly ahead of their projections, but at the same time there’s a looming threat of how full year income tax returns will end up.
The best thing for agencies to do is to invest in projects that allow them to operate as normal despite pandemic restrictions through efficiency, automation, and a focus on things that can benefit the future of the organization.
Extract’s focus is on automation, so if you’d like to learn more about how we can automate your indexing or redaction processes, please reach out.
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.