The Defense Department is requesting $526.6 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund defense programs in its base budget for Fiscal 2014, announced Pentagon officials on Wednesday. “Even while restructuring the force to become smaller and leaner and once again targeting overhead savings, this budget made important investments in the President’s new strategic guidance—including rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region and increasing funding for critical capabilities such as cyber, special operations, and global mobility,” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in a release. “Most critically,” continued Hagel, it “sustains the quality of the all-volunteer force and the care we provide our service members and their families.” The request does yet not include a detailed budget for overseas contingency operations. DOD budget officials are preparing an OCO request for submittal to Congress in the coming weeks, states the April 10 release. The proposal also does not reflect the full amount of cuts that DOD would face if the budget sequester is still in effect come next fiscal year. Instead, it incorporates the White House’s “balanced deficit reduction proposals” meant to cut about $150 billion from the defense budget out to Fiscal 2021 as opposed to the approximately $500 billion that sequestration would strip from the Pentagon’s coffers over that span. (Hagel statement) (DOD Fiscal 2014 budget summary) (Hagel-Dempsey transcript) (See also Hale-Ramsay transcript and DOD’s budget website for access to Fiscal 2014 budget documentation.)
Here’s the macro breakdown of the Fiscal 2014 budget request: Operations and Maintenance: $209.4 billion; Military Personnel: $137.1 billion; Procurement: $99.3 billion; RDT&E: $67.5 billion; Military Construction/Family Housing: $11.0 billion; and Other: $2.3 billion.
Here’s the department breakdown: Air Force: $144.4 billion; Navy: $155.8 billion; Army: $129.7 billion; and Defense-wide: $96.7 billion.