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GAO-05-839R 1 (2005-06-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptarzq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SGAO Accountability * Integrity Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 June 30, 2005 The Honorable Wally Herger Chairman Subcommittee on Human Resources Committee on Ways and Means House of Representatives Subject: Administrative Expenditures and Federal Matching Rates of Selected Support Programs Dear Mr. Chairman: The federal government spends billions of dollars annually for programs that help low- income families and other individuals. A significant portion of these funds cover administrative costs rather than direct benefits and services. To provide information on how these administrative costs compare across programs and the federal government's role in funding these programs' administrative costs, we examined (1) total funding and the amounts and types of administrative expenditures for selected programs and (2) the federal matching rates for these administrative expenditures. Our review included seven programs: Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), Food Stamp Program, Foster Care, Adoption Assistance, Child Support Enforcement (CSE), and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).' The Food Stamp Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the remaining programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). To determine the amounts and types of administrative expenditures for these programs as well as the federal role in funding their administrative costs, we examined information publicly available from legislation, governmentwide publications, and the relevant federal agencies. We determined that this information is sufficiently reliable for the purpose of this correspondence. We conducted our work during May and June 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Total expenditures, including administrative and all other expenditures, for the seven programs in our review ranged from $2.9 billion for Adoption Assistance to $295 billion for Medicaid, including both federal and state expenditures, as shown in table 1. Total expenditures generally include the costs of direct benefits, such as the costs of food stamps and medical services, as well as all other costs of administering the programs and 'See enclosure I for descriptions of these programs. We agreed with your staff on this set of programs that provide assistance to low- income families and other individuals. Each of these programs is jointly funded by federal and state governments, employs federal matching rates, and has annual federal outlays of over $1.5 billion. GAO-05-839R Administrative Expenditures and Federal Matching Rates