Defense Budget Alert

The Defense Department is preparing to ask Congress for an increase of more than $100 billion in its controversial warfighting account to skirt a mandatory budget cap, but some government officials are worried it will only further the account's appearance as a slush fund.

The Pentagon is in discussions with the White House Office of Management and Budget on whether the upcoming defense budget will request money for a southern border wall in fiscal year 2020 and information is beginning to leak to Washington think tankers and other insiders.

The Government Accountability Office has outlined a number of paths the Defense Department could take to reform its controversial warfighting budget -- the Overseas Contingency Operations account -- but says the Pentagon has yet to decide a course of action as it finalizes its fiscal year 2020 budget amid the renewed onset of statutory budget caps and expected Capitol Hill gridlock.

The Army's fiscal year 2020 budget request and accompanying five-year budget plan will include a total of 194 canceled or reduced programs, according to the service's chief of staff.

The more than $25 billion in spending the Army is set to propose canceling, reducing or consolidating across the Pentagon's new five-year spending plan will be "backloaded," the service's secretary said today.

The Pentagon is preparing to delay the Feb. 4 rollout of its fiscal year 2020 budget request because of the ongoing partial government shutdown, now in its 25th day, according to government officials with knowledge of the matter.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX), the top-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said today he opposes any plan that would use Defense Department funds to construct a wall on the southern border, per an option that has been floated by President Trump.

Just a week ago the Pentagon was scheduled to receive a $50 billion Christmas present from President Trump, but the future of the defense budget has been called into question as he has ordered a speedier-than-expected exit for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and a surprise promotion for Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

The Congressional Budget Office has produced a range of cost-cutting scenarios that could be explored to trim the federal deficit over the next decade, including possible reductions to the nuclear triad and potential cancellation of the program intended to replace the intercontinental ballistic missile.