Montana federal obligations next to FEC candidate receipts

MT is a join key, not a copper-PAC trail

SpendingVault indexes $50,181,601,136 in Montana obligations. LobbyVault indexes $21.8 million in Montana candidate receipts. Interior-agency and resource stories are reasons someone might open both tables. They are not fields that connect a contribution to an award ID. The relationship is the MT abbreviation shared by 125,364 award actions and 250 committees.

$50.2 billion in commitments is not a restatement of $21.8 million in receipts. Obligations measure what agencies promised to pay. Receipts measure what candidate committees booked. Citing either number as a proxy for the other is a category error.

Open Montana federal spending for the award table and Montana FEC totals for the candidate table. All spending ties lists other state joins built the same way.

What the 125,364-award extract actually counts

125,364 is a row count of award actions, including modifications. It is not a unique-vendor census. $50,181,601,136 is the matching obligation sum. Average dollars per action are about $400,287 if you divide those two facts — not a typical interior line and not a typical assistance award.

Place of performance tagged to Montana is not proof that every dollar was disbursed in-state. Outlays can lag. This packet publishes obligations, not outlays. Recipient names live on Montana federal spending, not inside the FEC roster.

Democratic-majority receipts plus a sizable other line

Democratic committees reported $14.4 million (65.9% of $21.8 million). Republican committees reported $5.0 million (22.8%). Other filers reported $2.5 million (11.3%). 250 federal candidate committees tagged to Montana sit behind those lines. A 65.9% receipt share is not a share of $50,181,601,136.

Party labels travel with candidate committees. USAspending rows here have no party field. State-office campaigns file under Montana law and sit outside the FEC total. Do not paint obligation dollars with FEC colors.

Billings versus western Montana is not a third total

This packet does not split $21.8 million or $50,181,601,136 between eastern and western Montana. 250 committees and 125,364 awards are statewide. A regional cut would be a different extract. Independent expenditures about Montana candidates can be paid from elsewhere and sit in neither total.

Do not add $21.8 million to $50,181,601,136. Do not divide awards by committees. Candidate committees are not award recipients in this join. Correlation is not causation. The join exists so the series can be read side by side with the caveat attached.

Montana citation without mixing sources

USAspending.gov: $50,181,601,136; 125,364 awards. FEC.gov: $21.8 million; 250 committees; Democratic $14.4 million; Republican $5.0 million; other $2.5 million. Campaign contributions are not federal awards.

250 is a filing count, not a November ballot census. 125,364 is an action count, not unique vendors. State-office campaigns file under Montana law and sit outside the FEC extract. Local procurement paid without a federal award sits outside the obligation total.

Resource headlines are not a third dollar series

Mining and land-management stories are reasons a researcher opens Montana’s pair. They are not packet fields. The join still contains only $50,181,601,136 in obligations, 125,364 award actions, $21.8 million in receipts, and 250 committees. A headline that treats those series as one ‘federal money in Montana’ figure mixes statutes.

If a later USAspending ingest restates obligations, rewrite the spending sentence only. If a later FEC bulk file restates receipts, rewrite the campaign sentence only. Montana federal spending and Montana FEC totals are the live tables. All spending ties does not hide a blended total under Montana’s slug. Do not rank Montana as more influential because receipts sit beside obligations. Influence is not a field in this packet.

Keep Montana’s obligation total labeled as commitments, not outlays. A researcher who wants both pictures keeps two tabs and does not add the totals. County names belong on Montana federal spending if they appear as place-of-performance rows; they do not belong on the FEC sentence. Amended candidate reports move receipts.

Questions

Do Montana campaign donations pay for federal awards in Montana?

No. $21.8 million in FEC receipts and $50,181,601,136 in USAspending obligations are different datasets joined by the MT code. 250 committees are not the 125,364 award actions. A shared state tag is not a funding path.

How much has the federal government obligated in Montana?

USAspending.gov records $50,181,601,136 across 125,364 awards coded to Montana. That sum is obligations, not Treasury outlays and not campaign spending. Montana federal spending holds the live award table. Original filings remain on the source sites.

How Democratic is Montana’s federal candidate fundraising?

Democratic committees reported $14.4 million, or 65.9% of $21.8 million. Republican committees reported $5.0 million (22.8%). Other filers reported $2.5 million (11.3%). Those percentages describe 250 committees, not USAspending recipients. Original filings remain on the source sites.

Where are Montana’s USAspending and FEC pages?

Montana federal spending on SpendingVault is the obligation hub. Montana FEC totals on LobbyVault is the candidate-receipt hub. All spending ties lists other state joins. Cite each source in its own sentence. Original filings remain on the source sites.