in World News 1500+ “Zombie Programs”, Over 8% of Federal Budget Spending at $516 billion, is Unauthorized, Possibly Illegal
Hardworking Americans face rising prices and a weaponized federal government, yet more than 1,500 federal programs are still receiving billions in taxpayer dollars despite their legal authorizations expiring years or even decades ago.
A federal program is separately authorized and funded by Congress. If a program is not authorized, or authorized at a specific level, it is not supposed to receive funding. But because of Congressional inaction, apathy, and inattention, these programs regularly receive such funding even though they lack legal authorization.
491 specifically-identified unauthorized programs and federal spending accounts for roughly 8% of the annual federal budget of $6.45 trillion, or $516 billion dollars. The DOGE effort to cut government fraud, waste, and abuse has so far saved taxpayers $140 billion by comparison.
The Congressional Budget Office couldn’t find or estimate the dollar amounts spent by the other 1,000 zombie programs they identified.
According to a recent investigation by RealClearInvestigations, the United States government is quietly funding what experts are calling “zombie programs” — agencies and initiatives that legally expired but are kept alive through backdoor budget tricks and annual appropriations.
In 2016, candidate Trump even mentioned this concept of refusing to pay for unauthorized programs as a way to get more funding to the military. The media ‘fact checked’ Trump’s claim as ‘false’ even though it was true, because, they said, Congress doesn’t have to follow the law.
One of the most egregious examples? The Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a taxpayer-funded outfit originally established to provide free legal assistance to low-income Americans. Congress let its authorization expire in 1980, yet the agency is still alive and well in 2025 — operating with 135 employees and a $560 million budget.