Glassbox VA · geography · FY2016

Iowa

GDX reports $1.4B of VA expenditures for Iowa in FY2016, across all categories. In the 3 categories that can be compared like-for-like, GDX reports $722M and USAspending shows $816M of obligations (113.0%). Every compared category is within the tolerance band set by all states this year.

← All states, FY2016

Category comparison · FY2016

GDX expenditure, USAspending obligations, coverage ratio

Category comparison for Iowa, FY2016
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	$629M	$725M	115.2%	115.0%–115.4%	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	$75.3M	$75.3M	100.0%	99.9%–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	$17.7M	$16.1M	90.9%	61.4%–106.3%	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	$155K	$30.9M	—	2.9%–2607%	Too small to compare	GDX reports less than $1M here; ratios on small amounts reflect rounding, not coverage.
Medical Care GDX source: VHA Allocation Resource Center (ARC) and FMS	$648M	—	—	—	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	$11.3M	—	—	—	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 · FY2016

Grey = GDX expenditure · teal = USAspending obligations (amber when outside tolerance)

Each pair is scaled to its own larger value.

Compensation & Pension115.2%
$629M
$725M
Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment100.0%
$75.3M
$75.3M
Insurance & Indemnities90.9%
$17.7M
$16.1M

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 · FY2016

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 Iowa).

Assistance listings

Obligations mapped into compared categories

VETERANS COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY
64.109 · Compensation & Pension · 1,188 rows
$585M
VETERANS DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DEATH
64.110 · Compensation & Pension · 1,188 rows
$57.1M
POST-9/11 VETERANS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE
64.028 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 1,159 rows
$51.9M
PENSION FOR NON-SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY FOR VETERANS
64.104 · Compensation & Pension · 1,188 rows
$44.5M
PENSION TO VETERANS SURVIVING SPOUSES, AND CHILDREN
64.105 · Compensation & Pension · 1,188 rows
$21.0M
BURIAL EXPENSES ALLOWANCE FOR VETERANS
64.101 · Compensation & Pension · 1,155 rows
$17.3M
LIFE INSURANCE FOR VETERANS - DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR INSURANCE
64.031 · Insurance & Indemnities · 1,650 rows
$16.1M
VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION FOR DISABLED VETERANS
64.116 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 954 rows
$14.0M
GRANTS TO STATES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF STATE HOME FACILITIES
64.005 · Construction · 5 rows
$5.4M
MONTGOMERY GI BILL SELECTED RESERVE; RESERVE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
64.032 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 931 rows
$3.6M
ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE
64.124 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 600 rows
$2.8M
SURVIVORS AND DEPENDENTS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE
64.117 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 794 rows
$2.7M
AUTOMOBILES AND ADAPTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR CERTAIN DISABLED VETERANS AND MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES
64.100 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 17 rows
$420K
VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND REHABILITATION FOR VIETNAM VETERANS' CHILDREN WITH SPINA BIFIDA OR OTHER COVERED BIRTH DEFECTS
64.128 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 2 rows
$2K

Construction contractors

PSC Y contracts performed in this state

COVENANT CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LLC
14 awards · largest action →
$13.0M
AWG SERVICES, L.L.C.
5 awards · largest action →
$8.8M
INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE SERVICES INC
3 awards · largest action →
$2.6M
C3T, INC.
2 awards · largest action →
$481K
WINN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
3 awards · largest action →
$302K
RANDALL ELECTRIC, INC.
1 award · largest action →
$188K
MDM CONSTRUCTION LLC
2 awards · largest action →
$162K
PATRIOT COMPANY, INC.
1 award · largest action →
$25K
US DIVERSIFIED CONTRACTING SERVICES INC.
1 award · largest action →
$0

Awarding offices (construction)

Office that recorded the obligation

636A8-IOWA CITY HEALTH CARE
4 awards
$14.2M
636A6-CENTRAL IOWA HEALTH CARE
16 awards
$8.1M
636-NEBRASKA WESTERN-IOWA
3 awards
$1.7M
636-NEBRASKA WESTERN-IOWA (00636)
3 awards
$582K
618-MINNEAPOLIS VA MEDICAL CENTER
2 awards
$481K
636A6-CENTRAL IOWA HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
8 awards
$411K
636A8-IOWA CITY HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
2 awards
$58K
VBA FIELD CONTRACTING
1 awards
$10K
437-FARGO VA MEDICAL CENTER (00437)
1 awards
$5K
618-MINNEAPOLIS VA MED CTR (00618)
1 awards
$3K

Pattern · geographic reconciliation variance

Observations for Iowa, all years

Every year in which a compared category for Iowa sat outside the tolerance band. Evidence strength follows the site-wide formula; the note is the most applicable benign explanation.

Iowa — Insurance & Indemnities, FY2024low · strength 0.84
GDX reports $7.4M of Insurance & Indemnities expenditures for Iowa in FY2024; USAspending shows $10.2M of obligations under the same category definitions (138.0% of GDX). The ratio sits above the tolerance band set by 43 compared states that year (93.5% to 126.8%; median 106.1%). GDX figures are expenditures and USAspending figures are obligations; the difference is a variance to review, not a finding.
Benign explanation: The sources place dollars differently: GDX follows the beneficiary's residence or the project site; USAspending follows the reported place of performance or the recipient's address.

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	$648M	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	$11.3M	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 211,549 and 71,449 unique VA patients for Iowa. Per-veteran figures are deliberately not shown: VA advises against dividing these categories by veteran population.

How this comparison is built

Like-for-like only: same state, same federal fiscal year (October–September), same category. USAspending programs are mapped to GDX categories by a published crosswalk.
Compared: Compensation & Pension, Education & VR&E, Insurance, and Construction (partly comparable). Not compared: Medical Care, General Operating Expenses, Loan Guaranty and Memorial Benefits — they are mostly VA payroll and operating cost, or are booked in ways that have no award counterpart.
GDX reports expenditures (money spent); USAspending reports obligations (commitments). A difference is listed as a variance to review only when the ratio sits outside the tolerance band derived from all states that year and exceeds 5 points and $1M.
For FY2012–FY2023 VA states that GDX Compensation & Pension and E&VRE were taken from USAspending.gov, so agreement in those years is expected rather than independent confirmation.

Full methodology, crosswalk and sources →

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 FY2016 · USAspending.gov (VA, agency 036)