Glassbox VA · geography · FY2024
California
GDX reports $25.6B of VA expenditures for California in FY2024, across all categories. In the 4 categories that can be compared like-for-like, GDX reports $14.5B and USAspending shows $14.3B of obligations (98.8%). Every compared category is within the tolerance band set by all states this year.
Category comparison · FY2024
GDX expenditure, USAspending obligations, coverage ratio
| Category | GDX expenditure | USAspending obligations | Coverage ratio | Band (all states) | Status | Structural explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Compensation & Pension GDX source: VBA Office of Performance Analysis & Integrity (PA&I), county-level payment data | $12.4B | $12.4B | 100.0% | 100.0%–100.0% | Within tolerance | Within the band set by all states this year. |
Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment GDX source: VBA PA&I, county-level payment data | $1.8B | $1.8B | 100.0% | 100.0%–100.0% | Within tolerance | 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: Insurance Service Office of Budget and Oversight (payment records with SSN/address) | $51.9M | $61.2M | 117.9% | 93.5%–126.8% | 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 Office of Construction & Facilities Management (CFM), by station | $243M | $59.6M | 24.5% | 5.6%–5801% | 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 | $11.0B | — | — | — | 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. |
Loan Guaranty GDX source: FMS (through FY2023); VBA PA&I (FY2024+) | $3.0M | — | — | — | 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. |
Memorial Benefits GDX source: NCA Office of Finance Service; VBA PA&I | $129M | — | — | — | Not comparable | Mostly National Cemetery Administration operating cost with no award record; only the burial-allowance and grant pieces appear on USAspending. |
Compared categories · FY2024
Grey = GDX expenditure · teal = USAspending obligations (amber when outside tolerance)
Each pair is scaled to its own larger value.
- Compensation & Pension100.0%$12.4B$12.4B
- Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment100.0%$1.8B$1.8B
- Insurance & Indemnities117.9%$51.9M$61.2M
- Construction24.5%$243M$59.6M
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 · FY2024
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 · 689 rows$11.5B
- POST-9/11 VETERANS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.028 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 672 rows$1.4B
- VETERANS DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DEATH64.110 · Compensation & Pension · 624 rows$675M
- VETERAN READINESS AND EMPLOYMENT64.116 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 641 rows$235M
- PENSION FOR NON-SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY FOR VETERANS64.104 · Compensation & Pension · 591 rows$183M
- SURVIVORS AND DEPENDENTS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.117 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 664 rows$177M
- LIFE INSURANCE FOR VETERANS - DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR INSURANCE64.031 · Insurance & Indemnities · 1,755 rows$61.2M
- PENSION TO VETERANS SURVIVING SPOUSES, AND CHILDREN64.105 · Compensation & Pension · 541 rows$51.8M
- SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOUSING FOR DISABLED VETERANS64.106 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 164 rows$10.7M
- AUTOMOBILES AND ADAPTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR CERTAIN DISABLED VETERANS AND MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES64.100 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 146 rows$9.8M
- ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.124 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 467 rows$8.9M
- MONTGOMERY GI BILL SELECTED RESERVE64.032 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 398 rows$3.4M
- VETERAN RAPID RETRAINING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM64.130 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 161 rows$3.0M
- MONTHLY ALLOWANCE FOR CHILDREN OF VIETNAM VETERANS BORN WITH SPINA BIFIDA64.127 · Compensation & Pension · 292 rows$2.1M
- POST-VIETNAM ERA VETERANS' EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.120 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 91 rows$283K
Construction contractors
PSC Y contracts performed in this state
- PATRIOT CONSTRUCTION INC9 awards · largest action →$26.4M
- R.T CONTRACTOR CORP.1 award · largest action →$19.7M
- G. L. BRUNO ASSOCIATES, INC.2 awards · largest action →$2.8M
- HAWK CONTRACTING GROUP LLC2 awards · largest action →$1.9M
- SENTINEL BUILDERS, LLC4 awards · largest action →$1.8M
- FEDVET CONSTRUCTION2 awards · largest action →$1.5M
- TALION CONSTRUCTION, LLC5 awards · largest action →$1.4M
- $1.1M
- D SQUARE CONSTRUCTION LLC5 awards · largest action →$895K
- SGC SERVICES 2, LLC1 award · largest action →$860K
Awarding offices (construction)
Office that recorded the obligation
- PCAC (36C776)16 awards$47.6M
- 261-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 21 (36C261)18 awards$7.2M
- NATIONAL CEMETERY ADMIN (36C786)12 awards$2.3M
- 258-NETWORK CNTRCT OFF 22G (36C258)3 awards$1.5M
- OFFICE OF CONSTRUCTION & FACILITIES MGMT (36C10F)4 awards$962K
- PCAC NATIONAL ENERGY BUSINESS CENTER (36E776)1 awards$436K
- 262-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 22 (36C262)11 awards-$497K
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 | $11.0B | 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. |
| Loan Guaranty | $3.0M | 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. |
| Memorial Benefits | $129M | Place of performance (NCA) and county of the beneficiary (VBA burial). | Mostly National Cemetery Administration operating cost with no award record; only the burial-allowance and grant pieces appear on USAspending. |
- 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 FY2024 · USAspending.gov (VA, agency 036)