The 2009 Future Years Defense Program: Implications and Alternatives, February 4, 2009, Testimony before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives
“In CBOs projection, defense resources average about $549 billion annually (in constant 2009 dollars) from 2014 to 2026, or about 6 percent more than the $517 billion in total obligational authority (TOA) requested by the Bush Administration and the $515 billion in TOA provided by the Congress for 2009. Consideration of potential unbudgeted costs has the effect of increasing the projection of long-term demand for defense funding to an annual average of about $652 billion through 2026, or 26 percent more than the funding provided for 2009 (and the Bush Administrations 2009 request). CBOs analysis of unbudgeted costs included several possibilities: that the costs of weapon systems now under development would exceed early estimates, as they have in the past; that medical costs might rise more rapidly than DoD has assumed; and that DoD would continue to conduct military operations overseas as part of the war on terrorism (also called contingency operations), albeit at reduced levels relative to current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Costs for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and for other purposes related to the war on terrorism have been rising. In 2007, appropriations for those activities totaled $170 billion in 2007 dollars ($176 billion in constant 2009 dollars), or 28 percent of total funding for the Department of Defense. In 2008, the appropriations rose to $187 billion in 2008 dollars ($190 billion in constant 2009 dollars), or 28 percent of defense funding that year. (In both years, some of the supplemental and emergency funding was for purposes unrelated to military operations overseas: in 2007, $5 billion; in 2008, $7 billion.)”
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