Federal User Fees: Budgetary Treatment, Status, and Emerging Management Issues

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO identified 27 agencies that rely on federal user fees for a significant portion of their budget, focusing on: (1) identifying of changes in agency reliance on user fees since passage of the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) of 1990; (2) describing the ways user fees are structured in the budget, including what budgetary controls govern the availability and use of theses fees and how they are treated under BEA; and (3) identifying of issues for consideration in the future design and management of user fees.