Can Current Budget (and Projections) Sustain U.S. Strategic Commitments?
The Congress appears on the path to adding approximately $25 billion to the Biden Administration's FY 22 budget. That budget was meant to be an interim effort with only hints of the direction in which the Administration plans to proceed; that is, a focus on China, and to a lesser extent Russia, as well as an increased emphasis on leading edge technologies, as well as climate change. Congressional action, however, points in a different direction. Much of the add-ons are for what are being termed legacy systems.
On other hand, there is a growing legislative push to restructure the cumbersome planning, programming, budgeting and execution (PPBE) system. By statute, the Department of Defense (DoD) must deliver a new National Defense Strategy (NDS) to Congress in 2022. It will be a critical indicator of the degree to which the Biden Administration truly is taking national defense in a new direction and is willing to reallocate traditional defense funding to buttress its priorities.
At the same time, DoDs acceptance of, or resistance to, changes in the PPBE system will indicate the seriousness with which DoD will approach the new not only to implement change, but to do so in a far more efficient and timely fashion.
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