# Federal Budget FY2025 The fiscal year that ran **Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025** — spanning the final months of the Biden administration and the first eight months of the second Trump administration. Final, audited actuals. **Headline:** total outlays **$7.01 trillion**, revenues **$5.24 trillion**, deficit **$1.78 trillion** (5.9% of GDP). Gross federal debt closed the year at **$37.64 trillion**, of which **$30.28 trillion** is held by the public — nearly 100% of GDP. The defining structural event: **[[Net Interest on the Debt]] crossed $1 trillion for the first time** (the narrower CBO "interest on the public debt" measure, $1,028B), making the cost of past borrowing one of the four largest things the government does. ## Headline totals | Metric | FY2025 | vs FY2024 | |---|--:|--:| | Total outlays | $7,010B | +4.1% | | Total revenues | $5,235B | +6.4% | | Deficit | −$1,775B | down from −$1,817B | | Deficit % of GDP | −5.9% | from −6.3% | | Outlays % of GDP | 23.1% | from 23.3% | | Debt held by public (EOY) | $30,280B | +$1,970B | | Gross federal debt (EOY) | $37,640B | +$2,170B | The deficit fell modestly year-over-year — driven by tariff revenue and a one-time student-loan accounting reestimate, **not** by [[DOGE]], whose claimed savings did not measurably dent it. ## Outlays by budget function (cash basis) The authoritative "what we spent on" breakdown, from the Treasury Combined Statement. $ billions. See [[Budget Functions]] for what each line covers. | Function | FY2025 | FY2024 | Δ | |---|--:|--:|--:| | 650 [[Social Security]] | 1,580.7 | 1,460.9 | +8.2% | | 570 [[Medicare]] | 996.7 | 874.1 | +14.0% | | 550 Health ([[Medicaid]], ACA, CHIP) | 978.9 | 911.7 | +7.4% | | 900 [[Net Interest on the Debt]] | 970.4 | 881.0 | +10.1% | | 050 National Defense ([[Defense Spending Landscape]]) | 916.6 | 874.0 | +4.9% | | 600 [[Income Security]] | 701.6 | 671.1 | +4.5% | | 700 [[Veterans Benefits]] | 377.2 | 325.6 | +15.8% | | 400 Transportation | 145.8 | 137.1 | +6.3% | | 300 Natural Resources & Environment | 88.3 | 56.9 | +55.2% | | 750 Administration of Justice | 85.2 | 85.0 | +0.2% | | 450 Community & Regional Development | 84.5 | 87.8 | −3.7% | | 500 Education, Training, Employment & Social Services | 71.0 | 304.6 | −76.7% | | 350 Agriculture | 49.4 | 34.7 | +42.0% | | 150 International Affairs | 45.2 | 56.4 | −19.9% | | 250 General Science, Space & Technology | 42.1 | 41.6 | +1.3% | | 800 General Government | 34.5 | 29.7 | +16.2% | | 270 Energy | 20.9 | 13.8 | +51.5% | | 370 Commerce & Housing Credit | −28.6 | 35.6 | — | | 950 Undistributed Offsetting Receipts | −150.2 | −146.7 | — | | **Total** | **7,010.0** | **6,734.9** | **+4.1%** | Two distortions worth flagging: the **Education** line collapsed (−$233.6B) on a one-time [[Big Beautiful Bill]] student-loan credit-reform reestimate (an accounting swing, not real cash), and **Commerce & Housing Credit** went negative on FDIC collections from liquidating failed banks. ## Outlays by agency (cash basis) Who actually spent the money, FY2025 vs FY2024, $ billions — net outlays, cash basis, from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement (Table 5, final FY2025). This is the companion view to the by-function table above: functions answer *what for*, agencies answer *by whom*. | Agency | FY2025 | FY2024 | |---|--:|--:| | Health & Human Services | 1,884.3 | 1,720.6 | | Social Security Administration | 1,646.5 | 1,519.7 | | Treasury (incl. ~$1,215.6B interest) | 1,458.9 | 1,316.9 | | Defense — Military | 868.4 | 826.3 | | [[Department of Veterans Affairs]] | 376.6 | 325.0 | | Agriculture | 227.4 | 203.4 | | Office of Personnel Management (federal retirement) | 128.2 | 126.2 | | Transportation | 127.6 | 117.4 | | Homeland Security | 115.3 | 89.3 | | Energy | 52.3 | 49.3 | | Labor | 50.4 | 65.0 | | Housing & Urban Development | 50.5 | 52.0 | | Justice | 45.0 | 44.0 | | EPA | 37.0 | 13.7 | | Education | 34.7 | 267.9 | | Commerce | 29.7 | 14.8 | | State | 28.4 | 37.0 | | NASA | 24.6 | 25.0 | | Interior | 22.4 | 17.1 | | International Assistance (incl. USAID) | 17.3 | 20.2 | | Undistributed offsetting receipts | −337.8 | −330.6 | | All other agencies (net) | −17.8 | 213.0 | | **Total** | **7,010.0** | **6,734.9** | The same accounting distortions show up here: **Education** falls from $268B to $35B on the student-loan reestimate, **FDIC** swings negative (−$31B) as it claws back the 2023 bank-failure outlays, and **SBA** drops to near-zero as COVID lending winds down — all folded into "all other agencies" for FY2025. Treasury is large because it carries the interest on the debt (see [[Net Interest on the Debt]]). ## The RWKB read - **Autopilot dwarfs the fights.** The four giants (Social Security, Medicare, Health, Net Interest) are mandatory or non-discretionary; see [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]]. The spending denounced in political ads (foreign aid, "woke" programs) sits in functions a fraction their size. - **Interest is the new defense.** Net interest ($970B function / $1,028B on the public debt) now exceeds national defense — the structural cost of decades of deficits and the 2022–25 rate spike. - **The deficit "improvement" wasn't DOGE.** [[DOGE]] claimed ~$215B; independently verifiable savings are a small fraction, and a DOGE staffer testified in 2026 the effort did not reduce the deficit. ## Sources - CBO, *Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2025* (Nov 10, 2025) — totals, net interest. - U.S. Treasury, *Combined Statement of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances, FY2025*, Outlays by Function — function table. - U.S. Treasury, *Monthly Treasury Statement* Table 5 (Outlays by Agency), final FY2025 — agency table. - GAO, *Schedules of Federal Debt* FY2025 (GAO-26-107908) — debt figures. ## Related - [[Federal Budget FY2024]] · [[Federal Budget FY2026]] · [[Budget Hub]] - [[Federal Deficit and National Debt]] · [[National Debt Timeline]] - [[Big Beautiful Bill]] · [[Government Shutdown]] (the FY2026 shutdown began the day this year ended)