The U.S. federal budget spends close to four trillion dollars a year. The federal budget is split between mandatory (what the federal government has to spend due to congressional legislation) and discretionary spending (what the federal government spends as a result of congressional allotment). Roughly speaking, mandatory spending accounts for two-thirds of the federal budget and discretionary spending accounts for one-third of the federal budget. Every year the executive and legislative branches debate budgetary priorities for the federal bureaucracies such as the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, the Environmental Protection Agency, Veteran Affairs, the Department of Education, and others