The following chart shows the breakdown of the proposed federal discretionary budget for fiscal year 2009 by function area. 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 2009 will run from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. Note that this chart includes the war-related spending requested by the administration as supplemental to the regular budget proposal.