Pentagon Asks to Keep Future Spending Secret March 30, 2020
Updated below The Department of Defense is quietly asking Congress to rescind the requirement to produce an unclassified version of the Future Years Defense…
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Tracking “Unobligated” Military Construction Funds March 5, 2019
A new congressional tally of military construction projects that have unobligated fund balances turned up hundreds of current projects fitting that description. See “FY2017-2019 Military Construction Projects/Programs…
Read moreAccounting Board Okays Deceptive Budget Practices October 9, 2018
Government agencies may remove or omit budget information from their public financial statements and may present expenditures that are associated with one budget line item as if they were associated…
Read morePost-9/11 Costs of War Exceed $1.5 Trillion August 29, 2018
“Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) has obligated $1,500.8 billion for war-related costs.” That’s the headline from the latest report to Congress on the post-9/11 costs of…
Read moreBid to Rectify the “Black Budget” Fails July 26, 2018
The so-called “black” budget — which refers to classified government spending on military procurement, operations, and intelligence — is not merely secret. It is actually deceptive and misleading, since it…
Read moreTrump Budget Would Reduce Most Federal R&D August 1, 2017
The Trump Administration budget request would cut federal spending on research and development in every major agency except for the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the Congressional Research Service…
Read moreIntelligence Budget Requests for FY2018 Published June 19, 2017
The Trump Administration requested $57.7 billion for the National Intelligence Program in Fiscal Year 2018, up from a requested $54.9 billion in FY 2017. The…
Read moreThe Trump Defense Budget Proposals, and More from CRS April 3, 2017
Would the Trump Administration’s defense budget proposals comply with the current Budget Control Act limits on defense spending? “No,” answered the Congressional Research Service CRS in a new report, which was…
Read moreTalking About the Defense Budget, and More from CRS March 21, 2017
The U.S. defense budget is comprised of several distinct components, including “base” and supplemental spending, nuclear weapons expenses, veterans benefits, and other defense-related costs. When discussing “the defense budget,” it…
Read moreSpy Satellite Agency: Winter is Here February 2, 2017
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has modified its classification policies in favor of heightened secrecy, withholding budget records that were previously considered releasable and redesignating certain unclassified budget information as…
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