Pentagon Spending

For too long, the Pentagon has been treated as a sacred cow in budget negotiations.

If you’re looking for where the action in the 118th Congress will occur, look no further than the federal budget. Some of the most contentious and consequential policy decisions emerging from Capitol Hill this year will center on federal spending decisions.

For 2024, President Biden requested the largest military budget in history — $886 billion.

Last month, Reps. Barbara Lee (CA-12) and Mark Pocan (WI-2) reintroduced the People Over Pentagon Act (H.R. 1134), a bill that would cut $100 billion from the Pentagon budget and redirect this funding to address pressing human needs, including education, healthcare and addressing the climate crisis.

With some issues, the right and wrong paths are so abundantly clear that it makes one wonder why there’s even a debate at all.  

Today, 59 groups sent a letter to President Biden with a simple message: Reduce the Pentagon budget and redirect those funds towards priorities that actually meet the needs of the American people.

Threatening our nation’s credit to extract policy concessions is an irresponsible political gambit with far-reaching consequences. If lawmakers are genuinely concerned about reining in federal spending, there are better places to put energy than the debt ceiling debate. Instead, they might look to the Pentagon.

With bipartisan support, lawmakers are set to approve $858 billion for the Department of Defense and related activities in this year’s defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Congress is set to pass the largest Pentagon budget in history.

Bad news: Pentagon spending is up. Good news: your advocacy to counter endless warfare is having an impact. Here are eight signs of progress in the 2023 NDAA.