The Congressional Budget Office released a report stating that the Department of Defense’s projected $718B spending from 2020 to 2024 would increase to $776B or 13 percent by 2034.
CBO assessed DoD’s Future Years Defense Program which includes the department’s projected costs for programs within a five-year period. CBO predicts that total costs for the 2020 to 2024 period would be 2 percent or $78B higher than 2020 FYDP estimates, and that costs for the 2020 to 2034 period would increase by 4 percent or $472B.
CBO analyzed DoD’s base budget as well as its overseas contingency operations funding which is reserved for temporary war-related activities. The agency noted that this is due to DoD’s decision to allocate 85 percent of OCO funding for 2020 and 2021 for base budget operations and “enduring†activities such as global military operations.
Contigency operations funding “are even more uncertain†due to changes in ongoing conflicts such as the U.S. government’s plans to subside operations in the Middle East, according to CBO. The 2020 FYDP’s projected total funding is 3 percent less than the 2019 FYDP’s estimates.
