The Defense Department for the first time supports ending statutory requirements for annual “unfunded priorities lists” — requests for spending on defense projects over and above presidential budgets, a top Pentagon official said in a letter obtained by CQ Roll Call.
The “wish lists,” as they are often called, regularly total billions of dollars — more than $24 billion in fiscal 2023 — much of which gets funded each year.
The lists began in the mid-1990s as requests from Congress, but since the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, they have become statutory requirements.
