Covid-19 Response: Pentagon Gets A Real $8.3B Slush Fund
Mark Cancian analyzes the Pentagon’s share of a $45.8 billion government-wide funding package to help it cope with the disruptions of sickness and quarantine from the COVID-19 virus.
Topic: Budget
Read the most recent CSIS research on the U.S. defense budget.
Actual Obligation Rates versus Comptroller Projected Obligation Rates
Seamus Daniels and Todd Harrison assess budget execution for DoD acquisition accounts. This report compares obligation rate projections released by the DoD Comptroller with traditional DoD budget execution benchmarks and the actual obligation rates for acquisition accounts.
What to Look for in the FY 2021 Defense Budget Request
The Trump administration is expected to release its FY 2021 defense budget request on February 10, 2020, the final budget submitted in the BCA era. In this brief, experts from the CSIS International Security Program outline major issues to watch in the FY 2021 defense budget.
Analysis of the FY 2020 Defense Budget and Its Implications for FY 2021 and Beyond
The Trump administration characterized its FY 2020 defense budget request as a “masterpiece.” The CSIS Defense Budget Analysis program provides its assessment of the budget, its implications for future defense spending, and FY 2020 appropriations.
Bad Idea: Management Jointness in DoD
Jointness, meaning cross-service cooperation, is generally a good thing. But one can have too much of a good thing, and the Pentagon has too much jointness. Jointness in organizing military operations makes so much sense that the concept is overprescribed. Enhancing interservice competition for resources and relevance would encourage military innovation, civilian control, and economies in the vast Pentagon budget.
Bad Ideas in National Security Podcast
In this episode of The Truth of the Matter podcast, host Andrew Schwartz welcomes Kathleen Hicks, Andrew Hunter, and Todd Harrison from the CSIS International Security Program to discuss the Bad Ideas in National Security series. In addition to analyzing their own pieces, they nominate their frontrunners for what might be considered the “worst” bad idea.
Bad Idea: Blaming OCO for Our Defense Budget Blunders
Critics of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds point to regular base budget activities funded under OCO and its use to skirt discretionary spending limits. However, blaming OCO for our defense budget blunders, or calling for its complete elimination, punishes those who need OCO’s benefits without effectively punishing those who’ve instigated its abuse.
Bad Idea: Maintaining Small Fleets of Air Force Aircraft
Small fleets of aircraft are eroding the purchasing power of the Air Force and limiting its ability to grow or even sustain the size of its current force.
The Pentagon is moving money to pay for Trump’s border wall. Here are the consequences.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper notified members of Congress that he would take $3.6 billion from military construction projects to build 175 more miles of wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Understanding DoD’s Defense-Wide Zero-Based Review
On August 10, the Department of Defense kicked off a defense-wide zero-based review. This brief explains what the review entails, which defense-wide organizations are subject to it, and previous efforts at driving efficiencies in the “Fourth Estate.”