Federal Budget Analysis
Follow the Money
How much does each federal agency really cost per employee? By combining OPM workforce data with USASpending.gov budget data, we can see which agencies are lean operations and which are massive spending pipelines managed by relatively few people.
Data: OPM FedScope (Dec 2025 employment) + USASpending.gov (FY2025 budget authority & obligations)
Total Budget Authority
$3.5T
FY2025, matched agencies
Employees (Matched)
1.25M
17 agencies matched
Avg Budget / Employee
$2.8M
Across all matched
Total Contracts
$813.2B
FY2025 obligations
Budget Per Employee
Agencies that manage the most money per staff member. High ratios suggest the agency is a spending pipeline (processing payments, managing grants) rather than a service-delivery workforce.
Contract Outsourcing vs. Disruption Risk
Agencies that depend heavily on contractors may face compounding disruption when combined with workforce reductions. Losing institutional knowledge while managing billions in contracts is a recipe for waste.
Bubble size = employee count. Color: 🔴 critical (>60) 🟡 elevated (40-60) 🟢 stable (<40)
💡 What This Means
Not all federal employees do the same work. A USAID employee managed $54M in foreign aid programs. A DOE employee oversaw $6.7M in energy research contracts. Compare that to a DOJ employee at $559K — mostly direct law enforcement and legal work.
When agencies like GSA (risk score: 81) or DOE (risk: 61) lose experienced staff, they're not just losing workers — they're losing the people who managed billions in contracts. Who watches the contractors when the contract managers are gone?
This doesn't mean every position was necessary — some agencies may have been overstaffed for decades. But it does mean the order and speed of reductions matters. Cut the bloat, keep the oversight.
All Agencies — Budget & Workforce
| Agency | Employees | Budget / Emp↓ | Contracts / Emp | Total Outlays | Total Contracts | Risk Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | 146.6K | $9.7M | $3.4M | $514.6B | $491.4B | 40 |
| Department of Energy | 15K | $6.7M | $3.4M | $17.4B | $50.3B | 61 |
| Department of Agriculture | 72K | $6.2M | $134K | $64.8B | $9.6B | 48 |
| Department of State | 11.7K | $5.3M | $2.7M | $9.8B | $31.4B | 67 |
| General Services Administration | 10.3K | $4.4M | $2.4M | $11.0B | $24.9B | 81 |
| Department of Transportation | 53.5K | $4.2M | $185K | $33.9B | $9.9B | 49 |
| Environmental Protection Agency | 14.7K | $3.3M | $117K | $4.8B | $1.7B | 61 |
| National Science Foundation | 1.2K | $3.2M | $594K | $2.1B | $711.0M | 58 |
| Department of Labor | 12.4K | $2.3M | $141K | $16.9B | $1.8B | 61 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 16.9K | $1.6M | $1.3M | $7.1B | $21.3B | 48 |
| Department of Homeland Security | 227.6K | $1.5M | $125K | $31.1B | $28.4B | 42 |
| Department of the Interior | 56.9K | $1.3M | $113K | $8.1B | $6.4B | 36 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | 451.1K | $1.1M | $174K | $117.6B | $78.3B | 44 |
| Small Business Administration | 5.8K | $1.0M | $19K | $403.0M | $110.9M | 70 |
| Department of Commerce | 42.1K | $817K | $99K | $4.6B | $4.2B | 47 |
| Department of Justice | 107.4K | $559K | $81K | $16.1B | $8.7B | 39 |
| Department of Education | 2.5K | $2K | $1.0M | $6.3M | $2.5B | 66 |
| Data below may reflect cross-agency allocations, mismatched budget codes, or other anomalies | ||||||
| Selective Service System | 145 | Data unavailable | $12.5M | $441.0B | $1.8B | 45 |
| Office of Personnel Management | 2.3K | Data unavailable | $87K | $53.7B | $198.3M | 77 |
| U.S. Agency for International Development | 370 | Data unavailable | $11.3M | $4.1B | $4.2B | 63 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | 6.3K | Data unavailable | N/A | $21.3B | N/A | 59 |
| Department of the Treasury | 89.9K | Data unavailable | $95K | $464.6B | $8.6B | 59 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | 75.1K | Data unavailable | $356K | $697.6B | $26.8B | 69 |
| Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | 5.6K | Data unavailable | — | $1.7B | — | 62 |
Related Analysis
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Browse all 128 federal agencies with workforce size, salary data, and separation trends.
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Month-by-month hiring, separations, and net change across the federal government.
Explore →Agency Risk Dashboard
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Explore →Sources: OPM FedScope (December 2025 employment) | USASpending.gov (FY2025 budget authority, obligations by award category). Only agencies matched between both datasets are shown. Military uniformed personnel are excluded from OPM data.