Defense Budget Alert

The Defense Department is laying the groundwork for a fiscal year 2021 budget request that would prop up its base budget by plowing $65 billion previously forecast as war spending into routine appropriation accounts, including nearly $20 billion for weapons investment, repeating a central strategy of the Trump administration's FY-20 budget request.

Congressional committees are preparing to consider defense spending and authorization bills this month, but lawmakers have yet to reach a bipartisan budget deal to avert sequestration.

The new National Defense Strategy calls for “urgent change at a significant scale” to reposition the U.S. military for global competitions with China and Russia, but the Defense Department lacks a sound strategic analysis process to drive the tough budget decisions likely required for major transformation, according to the Government Accountability Office and former Pentagon officials who spent years crafting national security policy.

The Air Force's new strategy for science and technology may cause changes in its fiscal year 2020 budget, according to the service's research and development lead.

The Overseas Contingency Operations account was introduced in 2009 to fund wars abroad, meant to give the Pentagon greater flexibility to pay for unexpected costs.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking a $65 million funding boost in fiscal year 2020 for its main portfolio of artificial intelligence development efforts, as well as an array of other increases and new-start projects related to AI and machine learning.

Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said today the Pentagon fully understands the "downsides" to overturning decades of precedent to reprogram $1 billion in Army personnel funding to construct 57 miles of fencing on the southern border without the approval of Congress, especially since lawmakers have warned that could lead them to eliminating the Pentagon's funding flexibility altogether.

Despite a $600 million cut to the European Deterrence Initiative, the head of U.S. European Command is not seeking specific funding increases to the fiscal year 2020 budget.

The Missile Defense Agency has provided Congress a $1.9 billion wish list to finance 11 projects above and beyond the agency's $9.4 billion fiscal year 2020 budget request, including bolstering spending for a new space sensor to track hypersonic and ballistic missiles, additional THAAD interceptors and additional investments for lasers and new warhead development.