The following pie chart illustrates federal discretionary spending in fiscal year 2006.The discretionary budget refers to the part of the federal budget proposed by the President, and debated and decided by Congress each year. This part of the budget constitutes more than one-third of total federal spending. The remainder of the federal budget is called 'mandatory spending.' Fiscal year 2006 runs from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006.

Note that this chart includes what the administration anticipated it would request as additional spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for hurricane relief when it published its budget request for fiscal year 2007. Since that money was presented to Congress as supplemental requests, it has not yet been finalized by Congress (as of April 27, 2006). The final numbers, however, will be very close to what they are presented in the pie chart.

Source: Budget of the U.S. Government, FY2007, Analytical Perspectives, Table 27-1.