A budget is defined as an estimate of income and expenditure for a certain or set period of time. It can also be defined as an estimation of the revenue and expenditure over a specified future time period (Smith et al. 2004). A budget can be done for an individual, family, business, agencies, government, international organizations and any other entity that makes and spends money (Nice 2002). This assignment required searching for the budgets of three agencies, reviewing and summarizing them and further analyzing the most appealing budget. This assignment will look at the budgets of Department of Education, Department of Defense and environment Protection Agency (EPA) for the Fiscal year 2015.
The Department of Education was allocated $68.6 billion funding by the state government to build upon the investments in increasing access to preschool, K-12 reforms and making college education. The budget is aimed at improving the various programs currently ongoing like the financial aid assistance and early childhood education. Significant reforms are expected in the science fields and student aid programs. This budget represents a $1.3 billion increase from the 2014 level. The program areas that the budget focuses on are high quality early learning, special education and rehabilitative services, student financial assistance, career and adult education and higher education initiatives among others.
The Department of Defense budget is estimated at $495.6 billion which is to go to efforts aimed at carrying out a national defense strategy and protecting national security. Some of the specific program areas to be covered include ending the war in Afghanistan, protecting the homeland, countering terrorism and other efforts aimed at improving security. The budget is also aimed at maintaining the mission ready force and protecting the American families. The budget seeks to rebalance the joint force through rebalancing and supporting initiatives such as volunteerism in the forces.
The Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget is estimated at $7.9 Billion which is aimed at protecting human health and the environment. This budget estimate is a 4 % drop from the previous year (2014) budget which stood at $ 8.2 billion. The specific programs to be supported by the budget include the climate action plans, coordination with other agencies to ensure environmental health and safety and ensuring environmental sustainability. Through the budget, EPA aims to reform the country from paper-based reporting to electronic reporting and aligning its staff to ensure that they possess necessary skills for environmental protection. This budget identifies the necessary realignments needed to achieve environmental protection of the country.
References
Nice, D. C. (2002). Public budgeting. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
The President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2015. (n.d.). The White House. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget
Smith, R. W., & Lynch, T. D. (2004). Public budgeting in America (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
