The Trump Administration's March 2017 Defense Budget Proposals: Frequently Asked Questions Page: 4 of 10
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The Trump Administration's March 2017 Defense Budget Proposals: FAQs
Figure I. DOD (051) Discretionary Budget Authority: FY200 I -FY20 18 proposals
billions of then-year dollars
Base OCO/other
$800
$600 187 153 163 155 115 70 15
169 82 85 63 59 5
124
$400 73
$200
FY01 FY03 FY05 FY07 FY09 FY11 FY13 FY15 FY17 FY18
Obama Obama
FY17 FY18
Trump Trump
Source: DOD Comptroller budget briefing, March I 6, 2017 (accessed at http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/
Documents/defbudget/fy201 7/marchAmendment/FY201 7Budget_Request.pdf).
Notes: Funding currently designated as OCO was designated as GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) prior to 2009.
For some years, OCO/other data also includes relatively small supplemental appropriations for repair of storm
damage and other unbudgeted costs.
Would the President's budget proposals comply with the current
Budget Control Act limits on defense spending?
No. The current national defense (budget function 050) discretionary limit set by the Budget
Control Act of 2011 (BCA\PL. 112-25), as amended, is $549.0 billion for FY2018. 3 The Trump
Administration proposes $603.0 billion for defense in FY2018-$54 billion more than the cap. In
addition, the Administration's request for additional FY2017 appropriations would exceed the
current FY2017 defense limit by $25 billion. Defense appropriations at those levels for either
year would trigger sequestration, in the absence of the appropriate statutory changes to BCA.4
The President's Budget Blueprint proposes to raise the defense discretionary caps for FY2017 and
FY2018 to accommodate the budget request. The Administration's proposal would partially offset
the requested increases in defense spending for FY2017 and FY2018 with reductions to
nondefense spending for those years. The proposal calls for a reduction in the nondefense caps for
FY2017 and FY2018, to offset the increase to the defense caps (see Table 1). Under the
Administration's plan, about 60% of the FY2017 defense increase would be offset by nondefense
decreases in FY2017. The entire defense increase in FY2018 would be offset by nondefense
decreases under the President's plans
3 For more information on the Budget Control Act, see CRS Report R42506, The Budget Control Act of 2011 as
Amended: Budgetary Effects, by Grant A. Driessen and Marc Labonte.
4 For information about sequestration see CRS Report R42972, Sequestration as a Budget Enforcement Process:
Frequently Asked Questions, by Megan S. Lynch.
5 Footnote 2 to Table 1 on pg. 49 in Office of Management and Budget, America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make
America Great Again, March 16, 2017. Nondefense reductions would affect many departments and agencies including
(continued...)Congressional Research Service
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Towell, Pat & Williams, Lynn M. The Trump Administration's March 2017 Defense Budget Proposals: Frequently Asked Questions, report, April 3, 2017; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1042270/m1/4/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.