Black programs have been criticized for violating the Receipts and Expenditures clause of the United States Constitution. Article I, Section 9, clause 7 of the United States Constitution requires the government to publish a “regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money”.

Because black programs are not disclosed as part of the United States official budget, critics contend that this violates the United States Constitution. Partially to dissuade critics, the United States Department of Defense sets aside a large portion of their annual budget as “the black budget”. This money is said to be divided in undisclosed portions among all black projects so that a record of how much public money is expended in undisclosed ways will still be publicly available.