With Congress poised to punt fiscal 2024 appropriations bills into the next calendar year, U.S. national security programs are bracing for the possibility they may net $82 billion less in the next two fiscal years than the amounts set by June’s bipartisan debt limit law.
That statute requires that funding for all departments and agencies — defense and nondefense — must be set 1 percent below fiscal 2023 levels in each of the next two fiscal years in the event that any of the 12 fiscal 2024 appropriations bills is not enacted by Jan. 1.
As of now, it appears unlikely that any of the bills will be enacted by then.
