Defense Budget Alert

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today there is a "collective effort" underway to realign military budgets and operational plans to better posture the United States for long-term competition with China and Russia.

The Air Force's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal is poised to mark one of the largest shifts of resources between accounts in a generation -- cancelling, reducing or consolidating about $25 billion worth of current projects as part of a continuing effort to better realign the service's weapon system modernization portfolio with the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

Senate Appropriations Committee Democrats today voted against the fiscal year 2020 defense spending bill after failing to add measures that would block the Pentagon from spending funds on President Trump’s southern border wall.

A Senate panel today marked up its version of the fiscal year 2020 defense spending bill in accordance with a bipartisan budget deal, appropriating $622 billion in base spending, $70.7 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations and $1.7 billion in emergency funding.

The Air Force's fiscal year 2021 budget submission has been shaped by a vigorous planning and programming process -- similar to the Army's infamous "Night Court" -- aimed at assuring the service's proposed investments align with the National Defense Strategy.

The White House has sent a 21-page list of "anomalies" to Congress seeking exemptions for a variety of federal spending priorities -- including the establishment of a Space Development Agency, continued development of hypersonic weapons and new background investigations -- in the likely event lawmakers pass a stopgap continuing resolution.

The Defense Department says its ongoing reform efforts have saved or are expected to save $18.4 billion between fiscal years 2017 and 2020, but the Government Accountability Office says DOD can't prove it.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper today heralded a new internal budget review as a chance for the Pentagon to "make tough decisions" that better align resources with the National Defense Strategy, which calls for greater focus on China and Russia.

The Defense Department in mid-July requested authority from Congress to shift nearly $1 billion to address "unforeseen military requirements," but lawmakers approved a transfer of only $670 million, according to a new Pentagon budgetary reprogramming document.