Defense Department appropriations legislation for the current fiscal year funded more than $58 billion worth of military projects that the administration did not request, according to a first-of-its-kind Pentagon report.
Lawmakers’ additions to the fiscal 2022 budget above the president’s request included money to respond to disasters and the war in Ukraine and other national priorities, but the extra money also bankrolled billions of dollars in weapons the military did not seek, such as more than $4 billion worth of unrequested warships, many of them built by the constituents of senior appropriators.
The June report, which has received no press coverage, has been posted on the Defense Department comptrollers’ website. The report was required by a provision in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, written by Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. Now a new assessment of congressional funding hikes for fiscal 2023 would be mandated in the NDAA that the House plans to pass Thursday.
