Recap of the FY 2009 Defense Budget
by Travis Sharp [contact information]
February 26, 2009
The Bush administration requested $541 billion for national defense in FY 2009, which ends on September 30, 2009. This request consisted of $515 billion for DOD’s “base” budget, $16 billion for nuclear weapons activities administered by the Department of Energy, and $10 billion for miscellaneous defense needs. The request excluded FY 2009 funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which since 2001 have been financed outside of the normal budget process through supplemental appropriations.
In September 2008, Congress approved $513 billion in FY 2009 funding for DOD. Additional base budget funding requested for FY 2009 that is not allocated to DOD – such as the Department of Energy’s money for nuclear weapons – is currently being funded at FY 2008 levels through a continuing resolution or “CR” that expires on March 6. Once the CR expires, Congress must decide whether it wants to either: a) set a new level of funding for the remainder of FY 2009, which it could do through an “omnibus” package that combines all nine yet to be passed FY 2009 appropriations bills; or b) simply extend the CR (and thus the FY 2008 funding level) for the remainder of FY 2009. It appears that Congress will attempt to complete an omnibus package before the CR expires on March 6.
Last year Congress also passed $68.5 billion in “bridge” FY 2009 funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that will last until June 2009. Recent press reports indicate that an additional $75.5 billion will be needed for Iraq and Afghanistan in FY 2009. This extra $75.5 billion supplemental, when combined with the $68.5 billion already passed in 2008, would bring total FY 2009 war funding to $144 billion and aggregate war costs to date to approximately $939 billion when counting war-related spending by DOD, the State Department, and the Veterans Administration.
Even though a final FY 2009 budget figure cannot be stated precisely at this time because Congress has not yet completed its FY 2009 budget work, it appears that final FY 2009 spending on national defense will be approximately $687 billion.
Table 1. Breakdown of FY 2009 Defense Budget Authority
(in billions of constant FY09 dollars)
(in billions of constant FY09 dollars)
| FY09 Funding | Allocated to? |
| 513 | DOD base budget passed in 2008 |
| 23 | Non-DOD base budget (e.g. nukes) funded at FY08 levels by CR |
| 68.5 | First war supplemental passed in 2008 |
| 75.5 | Second war supplemental expected to be passed in 2009 |
| 6.5 | DOD funding in stimulus |
| 687 | Estimated total FY09 defense spending budget authority |
Table Notes: Author's estimate based on Congressional Research Service, Department of Defense, and media reports
Travis Sharp 202-546-0795 ext. 2105 tsharp@armscontrolcenter.org
Travis Sharp is the Military Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He has published articles on defense policy in scholarly journals, internet magazines, and local newspapers, and has appeared on or been quoted in media venues such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, CNN, and Al Jazeera.