A topline that hovers around zero.
GSA's net budget authority, FY1976–FY2031, from OMB's Historical Tables. This is the revolving-fund NET topline: because the Federal Buildings Fund and the Acquisition Services Fund net their offsetting rent and fee collections against spending, the line is small and frequently below zero — spiking only with one-time capital events. It is not GSA's operating scale; the FBF program level alone is ~$10.5 billion. Negatives are preserved, not hidden.
FY2027 net budget authority
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nominal · OMB estimate · incl. one-time FCRF
Series trough
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Negative years
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of 0 — revolving-fund signature
Years parsed
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contiguous, numeric — self-checked
GSA net budget authority — the arc
nominal (current $) · OMB Historical Table 5.2 · net of collectionsReading the arc
This line does not measure how big GSA is — it measures the residual after the revolving funds offset their collections against their spending, which is close to zero by design. When it spikes, it is a one-time capital event: the FY2009 ARRA surge, the FY2022 spike, and the FY2027 one-time Federal Capital Revolving Fund capitalization (~$10 billion). When it goes negative, offsetting collections simply exceeded outlays that year. That is exactly why a department-level monitor must read GSA from its program levels — the Federal Buildings Fund and the Acquisition Services Fund — and treat this net topline as a footnote, never the headline. The series is nominal: OMB's Table 5.2 publishes no constant-dollar basis, and we do not synthesize one.