Tracking the Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions for Department of Defense
Fast Facts
As part of FY22 appropriations, Members of Congress could request to designate a certain amount of federal funding for specific projects in their communities.
While agencies often have discretion over how they award funds, Congress has directed them to distribute these funds to designated recipients. We're tracking the funds to help ensure transparency.
The Department of Defense's FY22 appropriations included $1.29 billion for 87 of these projects.
This report looks at when DOD plans to distribute the funds and how it plans to ensure they’re spent properly.
We're also tracking these funds across government and at 17 other agencies.
DOD: Where did the FY 2022 funding go?
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 appropriated $1.29 billion to the Department of Defense (DOD) for 87 projects at the request of Members of Congress. The act includes specific provisions that designate an amount of funds for a particular recipient to use for a specific project. These provisions are called "Congressionally Directed Spending" in the U.S. Senate and "Community Project Funding" in the House of Representatives.
GAO described, among other things, information about the intended uses for these funds, the recipients to whom they were designated, and when DOD expects recipients will have access to the funds:
The intended uses of these funds are to support construction of military facilities and research on topics including weapons-related technology, cybersecurity, facility resilience, and personnel health and fitness.
The designated recipients of these funds are mostly entities within DOD—military services or other components—including the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. The remaining recipients are higher education and other nonprofit organizations. Funding ranged from $200,000 to about $122 million.
DOD plans to obligate funds to recipients within 1 year and recipients will have between 7 and 10 years to spend all of the funds, depending on the project type.
Why GAO Did This Study
The joint explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 includes a provision for GAO to review agencies' implementation of Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending.
For more information, contact Elizabeth Field at (202) 512-2775 or fielde@gao.gov.