Congress is on track to fund the Pentagon at the levels requested by President Obama last year plus an additional $15B, half of the $30B supplemental requested by the Trump administration last month. When all is said and done, the Pentagon will end up with $601B in total budget authority in FY17, +3.5% to the $583B it received in FY18.
Key points:
- President Obama requested $524B in baseline spending and $61.8B in OCO for FY17.
- The House and Senate have conferenced a bill (H.R. 1301) that matches the Obama request with internal adjustments that boost procurement authority +~6% to $108B but stays within the caps.
- In March the Trump Administration made a supplemental request of $30B ($25B baseline + $5B OCO) to begin to restore readiness. $15.5B of the request was for increased procurement and R&D - ~$4.2B to BA programs and $2B for LMT programs.
- The Trump request to add $ to the baseline requires a change to the Budget Control Act - not possible by Friday.
- In the deal which should be signed next week, Congress will add $15B in supplemental funding but all as OCO funding. OCO spending authority for FY17 will now total ~$77B. The $15B will focus on force structure increases (MilPers) and maintenance (O&M). Procurement will be limited to spare parts and weapons/ammo.
- While all of the basic decisions on the 12 appropriations bills should be complete by Friday, Congress will need to extend the CR by an additional week to complete its work.
