Inconsistent Congress: Analysis of the 2024 Defense Budget Request

October 17, 2023 Travis Sharp

After increasing the Department of Defense (DoD) budget in real terms during seven of the past eight fiscal years, Congress has now pivoted toward restraining spending by passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Approved in early June as part of the debt ceiling deal, the law imposes a liberating limit on defense. It unshackles defense spending from parity with nondefense spending but still caps military budgets at or near current spending levels for the next two fiscal years while brandishing the threat of a lowered defense cap and potential sequestration if Congress delays in passing full-year appropriations for any budget account.

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In Inconsistent Congress, CSBA Senior Fellow and Director of Defense Budget Studies Travis Sharp explores two scenarios facing defense planners during these uncertainties. One, "frozen topline," would involve Congress failing to pass full-year appropriations for both fiscal year (FY) 2024 and FY 2025, triggering two years of sequestration. The other, "abrupt cut," would involve Congress passing full-year appropriations matching the Fiscal Responsibility Act's cap but failing to do so for FY 2025, triggering one year of sequestration. Should either of these scenarios occur, Sharp indicates that sequestration-triggered spending cuts would exceed the savings that could be generated by cutting programs that legislators often identify as likely candidates for cost reduction.

Instead, Sharp analyzes congressional adjustments to the president's defense budget requests dating back to FY 2016. He finds that Congress demonstrates a programmatic orientation towards procurement spending over other purposes, often allocating procurement funds to legacy weapons systems, then assessing the impact of this orientation on innovation and readiness in defense. Moving forward, Sharp provides recommendations for the best path forward for Congress and the Pentagon, looking at both near-term planning and long-term education of defense priorities as they relate to budget.

This report is the 38th in a series of annual budget analyses published since 1983 by CSBA and its predecessor organization, the Defense Budget Project.

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H.R.7900 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023

117th Congress (2021-2022)

This bill authorizes Department of Defense (DOD) activities for FY2023 and addresses other issues.

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For example, the bill

authorizes the procurement of various items, including destroyers and aircraft;

modifies inventory requirements for various Air Force programs;

authorizes DOD to furnish electric vehicle charging stations at commissary stores and military exchanges;

requires DOD to provide, subject to appropriations, support for the research and development of innovative bioindustrial manufacturing processes;

requires DOD to carry out a pilot program to facilitate the transition of certain nontactical vehicles to electric vehicles;

requires the Army and the Navy to jointly carry out a pilot program to evaluate the feasibility of using data recorders to monitor the operation of military tactical vehicles;

prescribes end strengths for the branches of the Armed Forces;

requires the branches of the Armed Forces to notify Congress before taking certain actions regarding reserve units, such as the deactivation or reassignment of such a unit;

requires the Army to establish gender-neutral fitness standards for military occupational specialties that are higher than those for noncombat military occupational specialties;

requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to Congress recommendations for improving the retention and recruitment of members who specialize in Army air and missile defense systems, and requires the Army to implement the recommendations;

requires the GAO to report to Congress a review of a major military health contract after DOD has entered into the contract;

temporarily prohibits certain TRICARE programs (health care programs that cover current and former members of the uniformed services and their dependents) from imposing cost-sharing requirements for prescription contraceptives and certain related services;

requires the Department of Homeland Security to designate a laboratory as the Chemical Security Analysis Center;

requires the Department of the Treasury to take actions to support international initiatives to provide debt restructuring and relief to developing countries;

prohibits federal regulators from taking certain adverse actions against a depository institution solely for providing financial services to a cannabis-related business operating pursuant to state or local law;

provides statutory authority for an April 27, 2021, executive order raising the minimum wage for the employees of federal contractors;

prohibits barring a veteran from federal employment solely because the veteran consumes or has consumed cannabis;

imposes data standards requirements on certain federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and

establishes the San Gabriel National Recreation Area in California as a unit of the National Park System.

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FY23 NDAA Agreement Executive Summary

The 62nd annual NDAA supports a total of $857.9 billion in fiscal year 2023 funding for national defense. Within this topline, the legislation authorizes $816.