Defense appropriators in Congress have recommended adding nearly $15 billion the Pentagon did not request in fiscal 2025 for several hundred military research and procurement programs, a new database shows.
In most cases, those increases were additions to the amount of funds the Pentagon had sought. But more than one-third of the money went to scores of new programs, mostly weapons, that were not in the Pentagon’s budget plans for fiscal 2025, according to the report and corresponding database, which were released Wednesday by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget monitor.
The report is the latest in a series of analyses in recent years by the group and CQ Roll Call that have disclosed how members of Congress appear to be funneling billions of Defense dollars to their constituents — and sometimes to campaign contributors — for initiatives the Pentagon did not formally seek and that bankroll contracts that defense lobbyists acknowledge are often open to competition in name only.
