If activity indicates productivity, we should be in good shape on defense appropriation and authorization bills this year. Of course, it will take a lot more effort, political will, and floor time to advance the defense bills currently moving through their respective committees to enact productive policy and funding for defense; but it is a helpful start.

Seven House Armed Services Subcommittees released initial information on their priorities and initiatives for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee prepared its draft funding bill as well. Both committees will “mark up” their respective bills on June 22.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is also completing closed-session
work on its draft authorization bill.

With the mass of parallel activity on the FY 2023 defense bills,
it will be useful to focus attention on several key items.

First, the defense budget top line. Congressional defense leaders have made it no secret that they are concerned that the president’s $773 billion Department of Defense (DOD) budget request is not enough. It is highly likely that amendments during both House and Senate authorization markups and during the House Appropriations markup will be offered to increase the defense top line. Early reports indicate Senate authorizers have added $45 billion to the top line. The success of these amendments will send an important signal to congressional leadership as they consider a budget framework for the year.

Second, the long list of unfunded priorities submitted by the military departments and combatant commands. Will Congress fund a large part of these wish lists again this year? This is especially critical for FY 2023 because procurement of warfighting capability was sacrificed in the budget request in favor of more spending on research and development. With China’s increasing aggressiveness and an ongoing war in Europe, Congress may decide that shortchanging actual warfighting equipment and aviation readiness that is critical now and also sustains the supply chain is not wise.

Third, the impact of inflation. Despite the fact that inflation is a known problem for the defense workforce, its operations, and the increasing costs to procure goods and services—each with its own confusing set of inflationary numbers—DOD has not helped itself, or helped Congress help it, on this topic. In fact, Deputy Secretary Hicks said, as recently as June 13, that the department had not yet seen a substantial effect from inflation, but that she expected more impacts would be visible in the near future.

Parallel to, but separate from inflation, is the pay raise for
service members. So far, all indications are that Congress is sticking with the
4.6 percent raise proposed by DoD despite the fact that inflation is running at
more than 8 percent annually and the services are having difficulty recruiting.
As the bills progress, Congress should consider this gap that has cascading and
compounding negative impacts across the workforce and in every community where
they live and work.

Fourth, policy and programmatic themes. Themes and initiatives to
watch for in the authorization bills this year include: continued support to
Ukraine; efforts to tangibly address supply chain and defense industrial base
challenges; initiatives to improve readiness and speed of innovation—including
digital modernization, integration and joint command and control solutions;
perennial increases in statutory requirements for reports and briefings;
additional security assistance initiatives—this time for the Baltics; and
add-on issues that have nothing to do with defense.

In addition, the House Appropriations Committee highlighted “good
paying union jobs,” the environment, and investments in “diplomacy, development
and health” in its press release on the defense bill. Though these are topics
for Congress to consider, their prominence in summarizing the defense funding
bill emphasizes the defense subcommittee’s focus may not be on warfighting
first and foremost, which only DOD can do.

Fifth, it will be interesting to see just how far Congress will go in allowing the Defense Department, in particular the Navy and Air Force, to divest ships and planes. If one believes that our Navy needs ships and our Air Force needs planes, then Congress is going to have to intervene because DOD is reducing both. It will be imperative to bump procurement of current capability to fill the gaps made by early retirements across the services.

Finally, all of this activity will mean very little without a budget agreement that provides the framework for appropriators to actually finish their work prior to the start of the fiscal year at the end of September. It is critical that the momentum initiated by the authorizers and picked up by the appropriators drives congressional leadership and administration negotiators to work now to complete the most fundamental task of protecting US security through enactment of annual appropriations on time. The clock is ticking.

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