re: #230 Mattand

I think I’ve written about that before. The Executive Branch budget is set by Congress. It includes everything from USSS to maintaining, preserving, renovating, and upgrading the White House. It includes the amounts for state dinners and other events as well.

The budgets have been relatively consistent over time, but have increased in recent years due to increased security requirements and renovations underway at the WH (such as building new facilities for the press, underground bunkers, etc.)

To repeat, Congress appropriates the budget for the WH.

For instance, this table shows outlays by agency from 1962 thru estimates for 2017. The Executive Office of the President line covers some of the WH expenditures. It’s actually gone down from 2009 through 2011 after rising from 2002 through 2005 - primarily security related costs.