By Franz-Stefan Gady

February 03, 2015

'According to the Defense News, the fiscal year 2016 defense budget request will in all likelihood, "die a long complicated death as it winds its way through the congressional committees." The proposal consists of $534 billion in the base budget and $51 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO). The request is most likely to trigger a fierce debate in Congress over spending priorities.

Defense News quotes analyst Todd Harrison of the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessment (CSBA): "I don't think it's likely DoD gets anything close to what they're planning right now." This is mostly due to the 2011 Budget Control Act  and the threat of sequestration (for more details on the defense budget request please check out my previous piece here). The White House's strategy so far has been simply to ignore the threat of sequestration and, by doing so, force Congress to break through its self-imposed spending caps, which automatically trigger sequestration. The Hill states that, "Obama's budget proposal will undoubtedly launch Congress into a host of political debates on matters ranging from health care to immigration to energy."'

Read more:
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/the-defense-budget-debate-rages-on/

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