Are there line-item breakdowns in White House budgets or procurement records for recreational facility projects?
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Executive summary
The President’s Budget and its supporting appendices do include account- and program-level tables and, in many cases, project-level allocations for federal recreation and facilities programs, but the document is a high-level budget request rather than a contract-by-contract procurement ledger [1] [2] [3]. Detailed procurement records for specific recreational-facility construction contracts typically live in agency budget justifications, appropriations-implementation tables, and federal procurement systems rather than in the President’s topline budget narrative [4] [5].
1. The White House budget: structured line items, not procurement receipts
The Office of Management and Budget publishes the President’s Budget, its discretionary request, and technical appendices that contain account, program, and—when relevant—project allocations; these materials routinely include tables that break out funding for facilities, maintenance, and recreation programs [1] [2] [6]. The budget appendix and congressional submission materials therefore provide line-item style budget detail for agencies’ recreation-related programs (for example, facilities maintenance and leases tables in agency justifications), but they are formatted as appropriations and program allocations, not as procurement invoices or contract line items [4] [2].
2. Agencies supply the granular program and project allocations
Departments that run recreation infrastructure—Interior/NPS, Agriculture/Forest Service, and related subagencies—produce appropriations detail tables and project statements showing how funds are allocated across operations, maintenance, and specific projects; the Forest Service budget justification explicitly includes “Appropriations Detail Table” and project statements for facilities maintenance and recreation activities [4]. Congress and OMB expect the President’s submission to include account, program, and project allocations for trust or dedicated funds such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, indicating that program- and some project-level breakdowns are part of the formal budget submission [5].
3. The budget request is a proposal; Congress and agencies translate line items into spending
The President’s Budget represents the Administration’s funding priorities and contains detailed tables, but it is not binding—Congress drafts appropriations and can reallocate, add, or remove project funding, including earmarks or community project funding [7] [5]. Congressional appropriations laws and committee summaries frequently annotate increases or cuts for specific program areas—such as increases for inauguration planning or reductions to community project funds—which shows that the final, enforceable distribution of recreation and facility dollars is negotiated after the President’s line-item presentation [5].
4. Procurement records and contracts are a different record stream (limited reporting here)
While the President’s Budget and agency justifications disclose program and project allocations, they do not serve as procurement records showing which contractors were paid, specific contract line items, or invoices; such procurement details are typically recorded in agency procurement systems (e.g., FPDS, USAspending) and contract files, which are not provided in the White House budget appendices cited here [2] [6]. The available sources document allocations and program-level tables but do not include contract-level procurement ledgers in the materials supplied for review [2] [4].
5. Bottom line and practical implication for someone seeking contract-level detail
The Administration’s budget documents provide clear line-item style breakdowns at the account, program, and often project level for recreation and facilities funding, which is sufficient to trace proposed money flows and priorities [2] [4] [5], but they do not replace agency or federal procurement databases for anyone seeking contractor names, award amounts, or granular invoice-level evidence; those records are maintained separately and would require consulting procurement repositories or agency contracting offices, a step not covered in the supplied reporting [6].