Many federal programs are missing from an OMB inventory, watchdog reports

While President Donald Trump has sought to shrink the size of federal agencies since the start of his second term, the Office of Management and Budget for years has struggled to quantify exactly how many government programs there are. 

Since 2011, OMB has been required to create and annually update a publicly available inventory of federal programs. The agency in 2024 launched an expanded inventory pursuant to additional congressional directives and updated it in January 2025.  

The Government Accountability Office in a March 5 report, however, found that OMB is not meeting all requirements with respect to the inventory. 

The website has spending information for more than 2,600 federal programs, but many programs are not included, such as those dealing with acquisition, regulations and defense. Defense programs are typically the top recipient of congressionally appropriated funding; they represented nearly half of discretionary outlays in 2025. 

GAO also reported that OMB is not archiving past inventories, contravening statutory requirements and preventing users from comparing past and current spending on specific programs. 

Investigators also found that the data in the inventory was not always accurate. For example, 157 federal financial assistance programs did not have any reported spending. And the website says that it has information on more than $7 trillion in fiscal 2024 expenditures. But GAO noted that the number is incorrect because OMB combined different types of spending data: obligations (planned spending), outlays (actual spending) and revenue losses. 

As of February, OMB has not publicized any plans to finish the inventory. 

“Without implementation plans that cover all required programs and information, OMB has not positioned itself to develop a comprehensive inventory,” investigators wrote. “An incomplete inventory is limited in its effectiveness as a tool for Congress and the public to oversee and understand what the federal government does, spends and achieves through its programs.”

GAO made 17 recommendations, including that OMB incorporate all federal programs in the inventory, archive past spending data and ensure information on the website is transparent and accessible. 

For almost all reports, GAO provides officials from the agency that is the subject of the report with the opportunity to comment on the watchdog’s findings. Officials typically respond, but OMB did not provide any comments on this report.