[Spooky23]

Federal agencies don’t just get $X billion to be spent at the direction of the agency executive. Each program gets funded at a very low level.

I did some contracting for a federal agency, the area I was meeting with was a hot area… Aeron chairs, nice office spaces, new computers.

One time we had to cut through an office area on the other side of the floor that was being starved. 1970s orange carpets, DOS computers, people who looked like they worked in a coal mine.

Same agency, different budgets. IRS is the famous example, Republicans when they control the house always starve the enforcement division as much as possible.

[s1artibartfast]

This is the nature of government agencies. Budgets are set by inertia, not need or output.

When I worked for an agency, there was always a mad rush at the end of the year spending millions on useless crap. The rationale was that any budget surplus would be reallocated and cut from next years budget, putting future programs at risk.