Glassbox VA · geography · FY2021
California
GDX reports $19.3B of VA expenditures for California in FY2021, across all categories. In the 4 categories that can be compared like-for-like, GDX reports $11.4B and USAspending shows $11.2B of obligations (98.4%). Every compared category is within the tolerance band set by all states this year.
Category comparison · FY2021
GDX expenditure, USAspending obligations, coverage ratio
| Category | GDX expenditure | USAspending obligations | Coverage ratio | Band (all states) | Status | Structural explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Compensation & Pension GDX source: USAspending.gov (plus FMS for certain C&P items), per the GDX data guide | $9.4B | $9.5B | 100.0% | 100.0%–100.1% | Within tolerance | VA states this GDX figure was taken from USAspending.gov, so a gap points to reporting revisions or state assignment rather than an independent difference. |
Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment GDX source: USAspending.gov (plus FMS for non-beneficiary items), per the GDX data guide | $1.6B | $1.6B | 99.9% | 99.3%–100.2% | Within tolerance | VA states this GDX figure was taken from USAspending.gov, so a gap points to reporting revisions or state assignment rather than an independent difference. Education payments to schools can follow the school's location on one side and the student's residence on the other. |
Insurance & Indemnities GDX source: VA Regional Office & Insurance Center (RO&IC), Philadelphia | $108M | $93.1M | 86.2% | 63.5%–107.4% | Within tolerance | Insurance payees are located by linked residence records in GDX (FY2024+ partly by ZIP code), by payee address on USAspending. |
Construction GDX source: VA Financial Management System (FMS) / iFAMS | $272M | $99.0M | 36.5% | 7.9%–3651% | Within tolerance | Construction is obligated up front and spent over several years; single-year ratios swing with project phasing. |
Medical Care GDX source: VHA Allocation Resource Center (ARC) and FMS | $7.8B | — | — | — | Not comparable | Most of VA medical spending is the payroll and operating cost of VA hospitals and clinics, which is not an award and never appears on USAspending. VHA's cost-of-care assistance listings (64.009–64.050) are reported inconsistently from year to year, and contract place of performance follows the facility rather than the patient's home. |
General Operating Expenses GDX source: FMS / iFAMS | $92.6M | — | — | — | Not comparable | Mostly salaries and overhead with no award record; the contract share that does exist is booked to the buying office, not to a beneficiary geography. |
Loan Guaranty GDX source: FMS (through FY2023); VBA PA&I (FY2024+) | $0 | — | — | — | Not comparable | USAspending records guaranteed loans by face value with zero federal obligation per loan; the budgetary cost (subsidy and claims) is not in the award file. |
Compared categories · FY2021
Grey = GDX expenditure · teal = USAspending obligations (amber when outside tolerance)
Each pair is scaled to its own larger value.
- Compensation & Pension100.0%$9.4B$9.5B
- Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment99.9%$1.6B$1.6B
- Insurance & Indemnities86.2%$108M$93.1M
- Construction36.5%$272M$99.0M
Multi-year trend, compared categories
Sum of the categories compared in each year
GDX expenditureUSAspending obligationsBreaks mark years not compared.
What makes up the USAspending side · FY2021
Programs, recipients and offices
Benefit programs are reported to USAspending as county-level aggregate rows, not as named recipients, so they are listed by Assistance Listing. Construction is listed by contractor and awarding office (place of performance in California).
Assistance listings
Obligations mapped into compared categories
- VETERANS COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY64.109 · Compensation & Pension · 685 rows$8.5B
- POST-9/11 VETERANS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.028 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 690 rows$1.3B
- VETERANS DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DEATH64.110 · Compensation & Pension · 612 rows$561M
- PENSION FOR NON-SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY FOR VETERANS64.104 · Compensation & Pension · 605 rows$256M
- VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION FOR DISABLED VETERANS64.116 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 611 rows$162M
- SURVIVORS AND DEPENDENTS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.117 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 654 rows$94.3M
- LIFE INSURANCE FOR VETERANS - DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR INSURANCE64.031 · Insurance & Indemnities · 1,986 rows$93.1M
- BURIAL EXPENSES ALLOWANCE FOR VETERANS64.101 · Compensation & Pension · 599 rows$86.7M
- PENSION TO VETERANS SURVIVING SPOUSES, AND CHILDREN64.105 · Compensation & Pension · 559 rows$59.0M
- AUTOMOBILES AND ADAPTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR CERTAIN DISABLED VETERANS AND MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES64.100 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 159 rows$9.5M
- SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOUSING FOR DISABLED VETERANS64.106 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 175 rows$9.3M
- ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.124 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 481 rows$8.9M
- MONTGOMERY GI BILL SELECTED RESERVE; RESERVE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM64.032 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 461 rows$3.1M
- VETERAN RAPID RETRAINING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM64.130 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 48 rows$1.8M
- MONTHLY ALLOWANCE FOR CHILDREN OF VIETNAM VETERANS BORN WITH SPINA BIFIDA64.127 · Compensation & Pension · 266 rows$1.6M
- POST-VIETNAM ERA VETERANS' EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.120 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 18 rows$58K
Construction contractors
PSC Y contracts performed in this state
- SGC SERVICES 2, LLC1 award · largest action →$29.9M
- STRATEGIC INDUSTRY INC10 awards · largest action →$20.8M
- D SQUARE CONSTRUCTION LLC6 awards · largest action →$13.6M
- NORESCO, LLC1 award · largest action →$9.3M
- PATRIOT CONSTRUCTION INC7 awards · largest action →$6.0M
- $5.6M
- FEDVET CONSTRUCTION5 awards · largest action →$5.0M
- HAWK CONTRACTING GROUP LLC3 awards · largest action →$4.1M
- $3.6M
- $2.1M
Awarding offices (construction)
Office that recorded the obligation
- OFFICE OF CONSTRUCTION & FACILITIES MGMT (36C10F)8 awards$35.9M
- 261-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 21 (36C261)33 awards$21.2M
- PCAC (36C776)2 awards$19.8M
- PCAC NATIONAL ENERGY BUSINESS CENTER (36E776)7 awards$10.3M
- 258-NETWORK CNTRCT OFF 22G (36C258)15 awards$7.7M
- 262-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 22 (36C262)2 awards$2.6M
- NATIONAL CEMETERY ADMIN (36C786)10 awards$1.5M
- 260-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 20 (36C260)1 awards$59K
Pattern · geographic reconciliation variance
Observations for California, all years
Every year in which a compared category for California sat outside the tolerance band. Evidence strength follows the site-wide formula; the note is the most applicable benign explanation.
- California — Construction, FY2023medium · strength 0.63
GDX reports $1.3B of Construction expenditures for California in FY2023; USAspending shows $40.8M of obligations under the same category definitions (3.1% of GDX). The ratio sits below the tolerance band set by 31 compared states that year (92.9% to 7424%; median 752.7%). GDX figures are expenditures and USAspending figures are obligations; the difference is a variance to review, not a finding.
Benign explanation: Construction and other multi-year awards are obligated up front and spent over several years: a state with a large new project shows USAspending well above GDX in the award year and below it later.
Pattern definition and thresholds: gdx-reconciliation-variance.
Context only
Categories GDX reports that are not compared
Shown so the state total is complete. These have no like-for-like USAspending counterpart; comparing them would report most of VA's own operating cost as a gap.
| Category | GDX expenditure | How GDX places it | Why not compared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Care | $7.8B | Patient's home residence, not the site of care (research is booked to the facility performing it). | Most of VA medical spending is the payroll and operating cost of VA hospitals and clinics, which is not an award and never appears on USAspending. VHA's cost-of-care assistance listings (64.009–64.050) are reported inconsistently from year to year, and contract place of performance follows the facility rather than the patient's home. |
| General Operating Expenses | $92.6M | Where the cost is booked in FMS/iFAMS — headquarters costs concentrate in the District of Columbia. | Mostly salaries and overhead with no award record; the contract share that does exist is booked to the buying office, not to a beneficiary geography. |
| Loan Guaranty | $0 | Through FY2023: Travis County, TX (processing location). FY2024+: county of the loan. | USAspending records guaranteed loans by face value with zero federal obligation per loan; the budgetary cost (subsidy and claims) is not in the award file. |
GDX also publishes an estimated veteran population of 1,615,957 and 470,788 unique VA patients for California. Per-veteran figures are deliberately not shown: VA advises against dividing these categories by veteran population.
- GDX expenditure
- VA's estimate of money spent in the fiscal year, by state (an expenditure measure, closer to outlays than to obligations; VA notes it can differ from both), from VA's Geographic Distribution of VA Expenditures report.
- USAspending obligations
- Net obligations recorded on USAspending.gov in the same fiscal year (sum of every transaction's federal action obligation), for the programs mapped to the same GDX category.
- Coverage ratio
- USAspending ÷ GDX. 100% means the award record accounts for the same dollars VA reports as spent. Obligations and expenditures are different measures, so exact agreement is not expected.
← All states
Source: VA NCVAS GDX FY2021 · USAspending.gov (VA, agency 036)