The Biden administration released its defense spending fiscal 2025 request on Monday, and it represents a 1% increase in defense spending, a whopping $849.8 billion. The plans for a bigger boost were hindered by last year’s debt-limit deal.
The budget request is $7.8 billion higher than the president’s budget request last year, which Congress never passed. The nearly $850 billion for the Pentagon requested for fiscal 2025 represents a 4% increase from the fiscal 2023 base level of $815.9 billion.
As the administration worked through its 2025 budget, officials were handicapped by last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act, which required it to be about a 1% increase from the fiscal 2024 request. But due to inflation, the department effectively cut about $10 billion from last year’s plan.
“We made smart, responsible choices to work within those limits,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters. “But to be clear, we must grow the defense budget in the out years of our future years defense program if we want to achieve the goals of the national defense strategy, especially in the face of rapid modernization by the [People’s Republic of China].”
In addition to the roughly $850 billion for the Pentagon, there is another $45 billion for additional defense projects that fall under other agencies, bringing the total request for national defense spending to $895.2 billion.
“The President’s budget request complies with the mandated numbers of the [Fiscal Responsibility Act]. Unfortunately, this defense topline number fails to keep pace with inflation and our adversaries,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
“I have been saying this for some time now — our defense budget should be built with the goal of deterring the threats facing our nation. Instead, we are forced to build a budget to meet an arbitrary number. I worry about the long-term impact this budget process will have on our national defense,” he said.
The Army requested $185.8 billion, the Navy requested $257.6 billion, and the Air Force is seeking $262.6 billion, while there is another $143.7 billion for defense-wide needs.
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The chairman also said the “committee will produce a National Defense Authorization Act that will meet the threats posed by those that seek to undermine our way of life and take care of the servicemembers who defend our freedoms.”
Navy Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. adversaries should notice the “continuous sustainment of funding for the nuclear enterprise and reprioritization and modernization of the nuclear triad,” among other things.
