Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Pentagon Budget Faces Uncertain Future

by Travis Sharp [contact information]

February 3, 2009

Download the full report (PDF, 9 pages)

On the first Monday in February, the President typically submits his budget request to Congress for the upcoming fiscal year. For defense budget analysts, this is a time of fear and loathing. The request includes hundreds of pages of information about specific programs that analysts try to dig through as fast as humanly possible in order to present a few digestible nuggets to reporters and congressional staffers. On the first Tuesday in February, a third or fourth cup of coffee is often required – along with a few aspirin.

But this year is different. President Barack Obama has only been in office for a few weeks. Many incoming defense officials have not yet been named, much less confirmed by the Senate. In order to have enough time to complete the “exhaustive line-by-line review” of the federal budget President Obama promised during his campaign, the new administration decided to skip the normal first-Monday-in- February-budget-request-extravaganza. According to press reports, the administration will spend two months preparing an in-depth, detailed fiscal year (FY) 2010 defense budget request – under the guidance of Obama’s new appointees – so that it is ready by March or April.

Press accounts indicate that the Obama administration may request somewhere in the neighborhood of $527 billion for FY 2010, although it is not clear what this figure includes. A fantasy budget prepared last fall by the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Bush administration reportedly planned to seek $584 billion for FY 2010. For reference’s sake, the Bush administration requested $515 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) in FY 2009. Some conservatives are using the discrepancy between these two unofficial FY 2010 estimates – a difference of 10% – to preemptively attack President Obama for cutting defense spending in a budget he has not yet finalized or released.

When it finally does arrive, the FY 2010 budget request will come amidst the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The economic maelstrom has brought renewed attention to federal spending priorities and the defense budget, now bigger than at any time since World War II, has emerged as a sector for reform and potential budget cuts.

This backgrounder will frame the debate about Pentagon spending as the Obama administration and Congress move into the FY 2010 budget cycle.