Glassbox VA · geography · FY2020
Iowa
GDX reports $1.7B of VA expenditures for Iowa in FY2020, across all categories. In the 3 categories that can be compared like-for-like, GDX reports $843M and USAspending shows $849M of obligations (100.8%). Every compared category is within the tolerance band set by all states this year.
Category comparison · FY2020
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 | $766M | $772M | 100.8% | 100.0%–102.2% | 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 & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment GDX source: USAspending.gov (plus FMS for non-beneficiary items), per the GDX data guide | $64.6M | $65.7M | 101.6% | 99.5%–103.9% | 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 | $12.4M | $11.4M | 91.5% | 57.9%–113.6% | 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 | $706K | $38.5M | — | 2.8%–3883% | 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 | $883M | — | — | — | 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 | $17.3M | — | — | — | 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 · FY2020
Grey = GDX expenditure · teal = USAspending obligations (amber when outside tolerance)
Each pair is scaled to its own larger value.
- Compensation & Pension100.8%$766M$772M
- Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment101.6%$64.6M$65.7M
- Insurance & Indemnities91.5%$12.4M$11.4M
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 · FY2020
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 DISABILITY64.109 · Compensation & Pension · 1,176 rows$667M
- VETERANS DEPENDENCY AND INDEMNITY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED DEATH64.110 · Compensation & Pension · 1,043 rows$58.2M
- POST-9/11 VETERANS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.028 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 1,140 rows$46.5M
- PENSION FOR NON-SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY FOR VETERANS64.104 · Compensation & Pension · 1,052 rows$27.2M
- BURIAL EXPENSES ALLOWANCE FOR VETERANS64.101 · Compensation & Pension · 1,053 rows$13.6M
- LIFE INSURANCE FOR VETERANS - DIRECT PAYMENTS FOR INSURANCE64.031 · Insurance & Indemnities · 1,241 rows$11.4M
- VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION FOR DISABLED VETERANS64.116 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 891 rows$8.3M
- PENSION TO VETERANS SURVIVING SPOUSES, AND CHILDREN64.105 · Compensation & Pension · 994 rows$6.1M
- SURVIVORS AND DEPENDENTS EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.117 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 858 rows$5.3M
- MONTGOMERY GI BILL SELECTED RESERVE; RESERVE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM64.032 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 854 rows$2.9M
- GRANTS TO STATES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF STATE HOME FACILITIES64.005 · Construction · 1 rows$1.7M
- ALL-VOLUNTEER FORCE EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE64.124 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 318 rows$1.2M
- VETERANS CEMETERY GRANTS PROGRAM64.203 · Construction · 1 rows$1.2M
- AUTOMOBILES AND ADAPTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR CERTAIN DISABLED VETERANS AND MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES64.100 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 51 rows$851K
- SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOUSING FOR DISABLED VETERANS64.106 · Education & Vocational Rehabilitation/Employment · 16 rows$581K
- MONTHLY ALLOWANCE FOR CHILDREN OF VIETNAM VETERANS BORN WITH SPINA BIFIDA64.127 · Compensation & Pension · 61 rows$116K
Construction contractors
PSC Y contracts performed in this state
- $34.0M
- BKM CONSTRUCTION LLC2 awards · largest action →$1.2M
- $155K
- ONEILL CONTRACTORS INC1 award · largest action →$137K
- BRISTON CONSTRUCTION, LLC2 awards · largest action →$120K
- $29K
- $2K
- DAX/GBAB JV LLC1 award · largest action →$2K
- THE POVOLNY GROUP INC1 award · largest action →$2K
- AWG SERVICES, L.L.C.1 award · largest action →-$31
Awarding offices (construction)
Office that recorded the obligation
- OFFICE OF CONSTRUCTION & FACILITIES MGMT (36C10F)1 awards$30.6M
- NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 23 (36C263)17 awards$4.2M
- PCAC NATIONAL ENERGY BUSINESS CENTER (36E776)6 awards$716K
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 | $883M | 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 | $17.3M | 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 199,339 and 68,060 unique VA patients for Iowa. 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 FY2020 · USAspending.gov (VA, agency 036)