Defense Budget Alert

The Pentagon will start repositioning 11,900 military personnel from Germany in the coming weeks, as part of a strategic shift expected to cost at least "single digit" billions of dollars over the next several years, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The House voted 241-173 today against an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would have removed an existing law requiring the Pentagon to send Congress an annual list of unfunded priorities.

House appropriators are criticizing the Defense Department for spending most of its COVID-19 relief funds propping up weapon systems manufacturers, rather than bolstering the U.S. supply of personal protective equipment.

A House subcommittee wants to provide the Navy with funding to purchase two Virginia-class fast-attack submarines as well as extra money for several select aircraft programs.

The Pentagon’s chief pricing official has issued new guidance to acquisition program managers on how to assess the costs and impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on defense contractors, noting that additional funding has not yet been appropriated by Congress to reimburse companies for pandemic-related hardships or delays.

Senior Pentagon officials for months have publicly touted an internal budget review said to have "harvested" $5.7 billion in "savings" that can be reinvested in military modernization and readiness, but the process, along with newly surfaced documents breaking down the cost cutting, is generating heartburn on Capitol Hill.

Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord told lawmakers today the Defense Department will need to spend low, "double-digit" billions reimbursing contractors disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but she asserted DOD does not have the resources to so do without supplemental funding.

Several Senate Democrats are criticizing the Defense Department for spending too little, too slowly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Pentagon says it intends to send lawmakers a plan today for  using the $10.6 billion in coronavirus relief funds Congress provided in March.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered the Pentagon to defer $545 million in overseas military construction, including programs that are part of an effort to deter the Russian military in Europe, so the funds can be used to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.