{"id":36400,"date":"2020-09-28T13:52:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T13:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/28\/americas-military-deserves-timely-funding-from-congress\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:55:11","slug":"americas-military-deserves-timely-funding-from-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2020\/09\/28\/americas-military-deserves-timely-funding-from-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s military deserves timely funding from Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, the Department of Defense once again does not have an on-time authorization or full-year defense appropriation from Congress. Sadly, the use of so-called continuing resolutions<\/a> has become the norm, but this approach imposes significant costs on U.S. service members and American national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of passing the annual defense appropriation and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is clear. Unfortunately, over the last decade, there is but a single instance<\/a> in which Congress passed both before the start of the fiscal year. Congress has instead enacted continuing resolutions, which essentially copy and paste<\/a> the previous year\u2019s defense appropriation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From fiscal year 2010 to 2019, CRs lasted<\/a> on average 119 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the last presidential election year<\/a>, the NDAA was enacted in December, but the defense appropriation did not become law until the following May. The delay in the latter drove the DoD to operate under a CR for 217 days \u2014 roughly 60 percent of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress’ increasingly routine reliance on CRs disregards<\/a> emerging and time-sensitive Pentagon requirements and priorities. In turn, this leads to misalignment of funds, delays in modernization, and substantive decreases in buying power. Further, CRs leave defense suppliers in the dark, imposing inefficiencies and delaying vital programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Congress wants to minimize program delays that are often the subject of heated congressional hearing questions, passing the NDAA and defense appropriation on time would help. After all, new programs cannot start without congressional approval that CRs usually don\u2019t provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these negative effects impact all of the services<\/a>, consider the impacts of a CR on the U.S. Air Force\u2019s<\/a> ongoing operations and modernization efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\t