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Events • October 7, 2025 

# The $15 Trillion Emergency Spending Loophole 

Congress has spent $15 trillion through emergency designations since 1991, which is equivalent to half the entire publicly held debt of the United States. Emergency designations have enabled more than $12.5 trillion in spending since 1991—comparable to the entire amount spent on Medicaid and veterans’ programs combined—and added an estimated $2.5 trillion in associated interest costs.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

[![Dominik Lee cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-03/dominik-lett%20Cropped.jpg?itok=45gTbBqN)](/people/dominik-lett) 

##### [Dominik Lett](/people/dominik-lett)

Former Policy Analyst, Cato Institute

![Steve Ellis_cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-09/Steve%20Ellis_cropped.jpg?itok=WnHCVcag) 

##### Steve Ellis 

President of Taxpayers of Common Sense

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##### Rachel Snyderman 

Managing Director, Economic Policy, Bipartisan Policy Center

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##### [Romina Boccia](/people/romina-boccia)

Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy, Cato Institute

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