{"id":23541,"date":"2019-03-01T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/01\/trumps-border-wall-to-cast-long-shadow-over-fy20-defense-budgetand-thats-not-all\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:59:41","slug":"trumps-border-wall-to-cast-long-shadow-over-fy20-defense-budgetand-thats-not-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/03\/01\/trumps-border-wall-to-cast-long-shadow-over-fy20-defense-budgetand-thats-not-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Border wall casts long shadow over FY20 defense budget \u2014 and that\u2019s not all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Even before it arrives, President Donald Trump\u2019s defense budget proposal<\/a> is already taking flak from lawmakers over the bookkeeping gimmickry<\/a> that\u2019s likely to accompany it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon is expected to ask in mid-March for a $750 billion budget for fiscal 2020, a 2 percent increase just shy of what its leaders say they need to enact the National Defense Strategy and rebuild military might after more than 17 years of war. But the politics around budget negotiations are already supercharged on a couple of fronts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers are balking at Trump\u2019s plan, as part of his emergency declaration, to repurpose $3.6 billion from the military construction budget for his controversial border wall, and to skirt budget caps by placing $174 billion<\/a> of the total FY20 Pentagon budget request into the off-book overseas contingency operations, or OCO, account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe OCO issue will not only complicate their whole strategy, but their whole approach to the authorization and appropriations bills,\u201d said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., an appropriator and ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, affirming that the Pentagon\u2019s credibility will take damage over the budgetary games. \u201cThe Pentagon will be carrying water for the administration, so it\u2019s hard to separate the two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House also plans to propose a 5 percent cut to non-defense programs, which combined with off-budget defense spending increases<\/a> has already attracted an outcry from budget and appropriations leaders in the Democratic-led House. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., blasted the war funding reports as \u201ca gimmick to prop up defense spending\u201d by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is nothing more than a blatant attempt to make a mockery of the federal budget process, obscure the true cost of military operations, and severely shortchange other investments vital to our national and economic security,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asks a question during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the FY19 budget, Wednesday, May 9, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meant to pay for the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, OCO dollars are designed to be for one year only, but because the account is exempt from budget caps emplaced in 2011, it\u2019s also been used by the Pentagon and lawmakers to absorb long-term operating costs. That\u2019s rankled fiscal conservatives but also pro-defense lawmakers who would prefer more lasting gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the goal is to rebuild the military, you can\u2019t do it through contingency funding and you can\u2019t do it through cannibalizing funding for securing the border,\u201d said Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to see a budget and a commitment for sustained funding for military operations, construction and modernization. The president touts rebuilding the military, and if you don\u2019t have consistency of funding, you can\u2019t accomplish that,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering a wide disparity between defense and non-defense funding is not a recipe for an easy, on-time deal to ease budget caps. HASC member Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., acknowledged $174 billion is \u201can order of magnitude\u201d above the FY19 OCO budget, which was roughly $69 billion. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be make it harder to get a bipartisan budget deal done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last few months have been a rollercoaster for Pentagon budget planners. First, they spent months building a $733 billion FY20 budget request. Then, in October, Trump ordered a cut down to $700 billion \u2014 before, in November, key Republicans and then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis talked Trump back up to $750 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That amount is fairly close to what the congressionally empowered, bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission reports<\/a> that America needs to shore up its eroding edge against Russia and China, as laid out in the Pentagon\u2019s overarching strategy document. The commission has also echoed the Pentagon\u2019s frequent call for predictable, stable funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\t