{"id":60396,"date":"2018-08-03T19:22:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T19:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/03\/dod-reveals-why-theres-not-going-to-be-another-big-budget-increase-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:31:37","slug":"dod-reveals-why-theres-not-going-to-be-another-big-budget-increase-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/08\/03\/dod-reveals-why-theres-not-going-to-be-another-big-budget-increase-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"DoD reveals why there\u2019s \u2018not going to be another big\u2019 budget increase in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 As the Pentagon finalizes its fiscal 2020 planning, the department is not expecting to see its budget top line grow, according to a top official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at \u201918 and \u201919 \u2014 two nice step-ups, in terms of funding. And the intent is there\u2019s not going to be another big step up again,\u201d Robert Hood, assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, told Military Times<\/a> during a recent interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the Pentagon has to focus on finding savings to help fund necessary requirements<\/a>, including increasing funds for high-tech efforts such as hypersonic weapons<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe understand that Congress really took some political risk in some cases to take care of the department this way. And we are going to do everything we can to live up to our side of the obligation to spend it wisely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the hope is we will find some efficiencies and savings in things, in significant amounts of dollars, that we can then reinvest into, be it hypersonics<\/a> or whatever it might be that needs the dollars. That\u2019s sort of our focus in trying to get us through the out years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 budget will be \u201cvery important\u201d for the Pentagon, Hood said, because it is the first budget<\/a> that will firmly come after the publication of the National Defense Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c \u201919 was certainly very much influenced by it, but this is going to now truly be all-encompassing. So we think the \u201920 budget request is going to be incredibly important,\u201d he said, adding that the deadline is a few days away for the services to figure out what they didn\u2019t get in 2019 and try to fill those gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we tell the departments, if their idea didn\u2019t get through, to resubmit. That process has already begun, so even though we were still debating this bill, we\u2019d already begun the process of collecting ideas for legislative proposals,\u201d Hood said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe deadline\u2019s actually Aug. 15 for next year already, but that\u2019s just to get it into the system so we can begin to put it through that chop process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t