A discretionary department — but read the fee-funding and the Census clock.

Office of Budget · U.S. Department of Commerce

Commerce has no giant mandatory entitlement, so its appropriated, bureau-by-bureau budget isthe headline. Two things trip up every casual read. The Patent and Trademark Office spends billions — but it is fee-funded, so its appropriation nets to zero. And the Census Bureau's budget isn't a flat baseline: it ramps toward the decennial census, then collapses. This monitor keeps both straight. FY2025 enacted, FY2026, and the FY2027 request; every number recomputes against its own source.

USPTO · fee-funded

Spending authority offset dollar-for-dollar by user fees

Gross spending authoritypatent & trademark operations, FY27—

Offsetting fee receiptspatent & trademark fees collected—

Net cost to the taxpayerwhat enters the appropriated headline—

Census · cyclical

Budget ramps toward the 2030 decennial, then falls

FY2026 enactedCensus Bureau, net—

FY2027 requestdecennial ramp underway—

FY26 → FY27 rampstructural, not a policy change—

USPTO and the International Trade Administration carry offsetting fee receipts, so the monitor reports each bureau's netappropriation — and only the net enters the department total. The Census ramp is carried in the Periodic Censuses & Programs subaccount; reading it as an ordinary year-over-year change is the cardinal error in the Commerce budget.

FY27 net discretionary

—

0 bureaus · CRS subtotal

FY26 net discretionary

—

enacted

Request vs. FY26

—

net discretionary

Gross spending authority

—

incl. fee-funded USPTO

The discretionary budget, by bureau — FY2027 net appropriation

$ in millions · USPTO nets to $0 (fee-funded)