WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's FY16 budget, due to be released on Monday, February 2, will exceed sequestration spending caps by over $34 billion. A number of news outlets have reported that the Department of Defense will seek a total of $585 billion in FY16, including $534 billion in base spending and $51 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations. The FY16 request is $30.8 billion higher than FY15 enacted levels. In December, Congress passed legislation providing $490.2 billion in base funding, plus $64 billion for OCO.
Last year, the DoD estimated it would need $535.1 billion in base spending in FY16. Sequestration caps the regular defense budget at $499.8 billion in FY16, however, meaning the request will face significant cuts if Congress does not alter the sequestration law. While the Pentagon does not provide estimates for OCO spending beyond the next fiscal year, the war coffers are not subject to sequestration cuts.
The FY16 request will include $152.9 billion for the Air Force, which is $16 billion more than FY15 levels, and about $10.9 billion higher than sequestration caps. The Navy's FY16 request will total $161 billion, $11.8 billion more than FY15 levels, and $13.6 billion above sequestration. The Army's $126.5 billion request will exceed FY15 enacted levels by $7 billion, and sequestration caps by around $7.3 billion.
Spending on military operations, meanwhile, continues its downward trend following the removal of combat troops from Afghanistan. There are still around 10,900 American troops supporting a training mission there, as well as several thousand troops training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Of the $51 billion being requested for military operations in FY16, about $42 billion will support the mission in Afghanistan, according to reports. This figure appears to include $7.8 billion for equipment reset, though the overall amount is still high considering the scope of operations there. The OCO budget has become somewhat of a crutch in recent years, and the DoD has been under pressure for some time to migrate certain OCO budget items back into the base budget.
The FY16 OCO request will also include $5.3 billion to support operations against ISIS, similar to what was requested for FY15. The figures suggest that the DoD has no immediate plans to ramp up operations against ISIS, though additional funding can be requested later in the year if the situation changes.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 28 to discuss budget matters, including the impact of sequestration . Defense officials have been pressing Congress to eliminate the automatic budget cuts ever since they were enacted. On his farewell tour, outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the DoD "will not be able to fulfill the commitments of the president's defense strategies with the kind of continued abrupt, steep, large cuts that sequestration will demand."
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