Budgetary Treatment of Leases and Public/Private Ventures

Federal agencies sometimes use leases or special-purpose public/private ventures to acquire capital assets without recording their full costs as obligations & outlays up front in the budget. That budgetary practice increased in the 1990s with the DoD military housing privatization ventures & the VA enhanced-use leasing ventures. This paper examines agencies' recent use of leases & special-purpose public/private ventures to finance the acquisition of federal assets. It reviews how the CBO scores budget authority & outlays for the legislation that provides agencies with the authority to enter into those arrangements & how the OMB records the obligations & outlays associated with specific leases & public/private ventures.Clay-Mendez, Deborah is the author of 'Budgetary Treatment of Leases and Public/Private Ventures' with ISBN 9780756733025 and ISBN 0756733022.