Waste of the Day: Congress Funds 1,264 “Zombie” Programs

By Jeremy Portnoy, RCI, December 30, 2024

Topline: Congress allocated at least $516 billion for federal programs with expired authorizations in fiscal year 2024, and likely far more, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

These “zombie” programs have no legal mandate to exist, yet they receive funding from Congress every year

Key facts: Many laws passed by Congress include money that must be used for a specific purpose. The same law will authorize Congress to provide more funds for the same purpose in the future, but only for a set number of years. Once the deadline passes, Congress must pass a new law to provide more funding.

Legislators are not following that simple rule, and have not been for a long time.

Zombie spending – Open the Books

Congress funded 1,264 “zombie” programs this year, the CBO found. Half of them expired at least 10 years ago, and one has not been authorized since 1980.

Analysts were only able to find dollar amounts for 491 of the programs, totaling $516 billion. It is unknown how much funding the other 773 programs received.

The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, for example, expired in 2003, and legally should no longer exist. Yet Congress funded 24 of the Act’s programs with $38.4 billion in 2024, allowing legislators to influence the White House’s foreign policy and security assistance to other nations. 

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, led by Rep. Cathy Rodgers (R-WA), funded 346 expired programs, more than any other committee, the CBO found.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions spent more identifiable money than any other group: $153.5 billion. It is chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT).

The total federal budget in 2024 was $6.8 trillion, meaning expired programs take up at least 8% of the budget, and likely much more.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

Critical quote: In a letter obtained by the Epoch Times, Rep. Greg Lopez (R-CO) called on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — leaders of the new nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency — to pressure Congress into ending “zombie” programs.

“This spending is a result of Congress blatantly shirking their main oversight responsibility: fiscal accountability,” Lopez wrote. 

“It is our hope that DOGE exposes the zombie programs to the American people and to the Trump Administration so that Congressmen of every party may be forced to change their ways. The only way that happens is through rigorous scrutiny by DOGE [and] pressure by the Trump Administration.”

Summary: Congress already spends enough money without skirting the democratic process and funding programs that legally should not exist. 

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

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U.S. Government “Zombie” programs have been carelessly wasting tax-payer dollars – to the detriment of millions of America’s hard-working, tax-paying families.

It is time now to retarget Federal Reserve / U.S. Treasury liquidity flows into a comprehensive economic recovery program that benefits all Americans.

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The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

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The most powerful economic acceleration plan in the world is queued up and ready to roll: 1) Eliminating federal and state budget deficits; 2) Restoring financial security for all participating U.S. citizens; and 3) Revitalize economic liberty for all Americans.

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US Deficit Explodes In August Despite Rising Tariff Revenues As Government Spending Soars

ZeroHedge, Sep 11, 2025 – Excerpts:

[H]ere is a look at the latest Treasury Income Statement for the month of August, published earlier today. 

First, the good news: for the fifth month in a row, the US government benefited from outsized tariff revenues, which as shown in the chart below, continue to rise and in August hit just under $30BN – or about $360BN annualized – at the current tariff rate. 

But while the tariff revenue in June was sufficient to tip the overall US Treasury budget into a (very rare) surplus…

According to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement, in August the US government spent $689 billion, up 0.4% from the $686.6 billion a year ago, and the highest monthly spending total of fiscal 2025 which ends next month. So much for the cost-cutting efforts of DOGE.

And while the huge monthly spending was somewhat offset by a 12.3% increase in revenues, which increased from $306.5 billion to $344.3 billion, this included the $29.5 billion in tariff revenues noted above. Take that out and government income would have been flat YoY. 

Combining the latest receipts and spending data, and we get an August deficit of $345 billion, a substantial deterioration from the $291 billion deficit in July, and the highest monthly deficit of calendar 2025. It was also the second worst August deficit in US history, with just last year’s pre-election blowout of $380 billion higher, which as readers will recall, was a kitchen sink month for the Biden admin, which flooded the economy in a last-ditch effort of boosting the economy ahead of the presidential elections.

Looking at the deficit on a cumulative basis, we find that after June’s improvement, the deficit took another lunge in the past two months, and in August – just one months before the fiscal year end – it hit $1.974 trillion, up 4% from the $1.897 trillion a year ago. That means that with just one month to go, 2025 is shaping up as the third worst year in US history for the budget deficit, with just the covid years 2020 and 2021, worse.

Last but not least, the epic disaster that is US gross interest spending continues to rise, and in August the US spent $111.5 billion on interest, pushing the total for the eleven months of the fiscal year to a record $1.124 trillion, and on pace to surpass $1.2 trillion for the full year. 

With total debt rising by about $1 trillion every 100 days, it means that interest will keep growing too, and unless revenue grows in line, we will reach a point where every taxed dollar goes to pay down US debt. As of today, interest expense eats up just over 23% of all government tax revenues, just shy of the non-wartime record high.

It also means that, as we first showed over a year ago, gross interest remains the second highest spending category for the US, well above defense, income security and health spending, and only Social Security remains a larger outlay category (although it is unclear for how much longer). 

Bottom line: after a brief period of irrational hope in early 2025 when Musk’s obsession with DOGE and cutting spending, we are again at square zero one and back on the fast-track to the debt-death of the United States. No wonder why in his most recent public commentary, Musk fully agrees with us: the government is unfixable.

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You are wrong, Mr, Musk. Government IS “fixable.”

The Leviticus 25 Plan will restore economic power to U.S. citizens – where it rightly belongs. And it will generate $37.303 billion federal budget surpluses during each of its first five years of activation (2027-2031), and pay for itself entirely over the next 10-15 years.

Economic Scoring:

* The Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 Generates $37.303 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2027-2031). Part 1: Overview, Deficit Projections (CBO)

* The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $37.303 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2027-2031). Part 2: Federal Income Tax Recapture; Economic Security / Means-Tested Welfare Recapture.

* The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $37.303 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2027-2031). Part 3: Medicaid, Medicare, VA, TRICARE, FEHB, SSDI Recapture

* The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $37.303 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2027-2031). Part 4: Interest Expense Recapture

* The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $37.303 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2027-2031). Part 5: Economic Scoring – Summary Totals

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The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen  –  Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (35909 downloads ) 

Website:  https://leviticus25plan.org/

Note: The ‘Free Money” giveaways referenced in this report are but a ‘blip’ on the radar screen, compared to the massive liquidity flows pumped out to major Wall Street financial institutions (foreign and domestic) through various Fed-initiated ‘credit facilities’ (‘Secret Liquidity Lifelines’) during the 2008-2010 financial meltdown.

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How Much Free Money is the Fed Giving Banks and Financial Institutions?

July 29, 2023, MishTalk – Economics

Excerpts:

The Fed pays interest to banks on all reserves… How much free money is that?

Free money to banks based on reserves, reverse repos, and current interest rate paid by the Fed. Chart and calculation by Mish.

Understanding Reserves – The Fed used to pay banks interest on “excess reserves”. Excess reserves are total reserves minus required reserves.

As announced on March 15, 2020, the Board of Governors reduced reserve requirement ratios on net transaction accounts to 0 percent, effective March 26, 2020. This action eliminated reserve requirements for all depository institutions. 

Since there are no reserve requirements on either checking or savings deposits, all reserves are effectively excess reserves, and the Fed pay banks interest on everything. That includes free money crammed down banks throats via QE.

Reverse Repos – The Fed also pay interest on reverse repos. A reverse repurchase agreement (RRP, or reverse repo) is a short-term agreement to sell securities in order to buy them back at a slightly higher price. The primary recipient of reverse repo interest are the money market funds….

Target Fed Funds Rate – The New York Fed explains: The New York Fed conducts repo and reverse repo operations each day as a means to help keep the federal funds rate in the target range set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

In order to suppress a free market in interest rates and to help control the mess the Fed created via Quantitative Easing (QE), now Quantitative Tightening (QT), the Fed is handing out free money left and right.

To calculate free money, we need to watch three things: Interest rates, reserves, and reverse repos.

Reserve Balances at the Fed, Reverse Repos, Interest Rate

Understanding the Free Money Forces

• In isolation, rising interest rates add to the free money given to financial institutions.
• QT reduces bank reserves and thus free money.
• Reverse Repos are now slowly declining. This also reduces free money payouts.

The net impact of these forces has been pretty stable for about six months, roughly between $250 billion and $280 billion in free money given to banks at an annual rate.

Free Money at Taxpayer Expense – My numbers are approximate, using end of month interest rates and monthly average balances. In practice, this is all calculated daily. But within a few billion dollars, the Fed is giving banks about $273 billion annually at the current rate.

It’s important to note that free money that should be going to taxpayers. Instead the Fed gives it to banks because its QE/QT programs made a huge mess out of monetary policy.

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These ‘free money’ Fed giveaways to financial institutions can be easily balanced back out with a properly incentivized, comprehensive economic acceleration plan that retargets liquidity extensions – to include U.S. citizens.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (35017 downloads )