Military spending limits capped by US debt ceiling deal at $886 billion
ALBAWABA – Several United States (US) defense projects, worth $16 billion in total, face defunding risk as the US debt ceiling deal suspended the debt ceiling but capped federal spending for the near future, Reuters reported Friday.
The list of “lower-priority defense items” – as Reuters described them – includes tanks, helicopter upgrades and a ship that would normally be funded under the defence budget.
According to the news agency, these projects were last-minute additions to “must-pass defense policy and appropriation bills” that usually get approved easily.
The US debt ceiling deal capped security and defence spending in the fiscal year of 2024 at $886 billion.
The national security budget was supposed to exceed $900 billion in 2024, as per Reuters.
Recent years have seen the US Congress raising the defence spending budgets by tens of billions of dollars.
In 2022 and 2023 Congress increased spending by more than $20 billion each year.
Prior to that, the Pentagon used "Overseas Contingency Operations" (OCO) funds for a decade to boost the amount of money available to avoid budget caps passed by Congress, Reuters confirmed.
Under the new US debt ceiling deal, this could be more difficult.
Ukraine support may be affected by military spending caps under US debt ceiling deal
One aspect that may prove challenging, Reuters claimed, is the Ukraine war support effort.
The US approved a $48 billion allocation in December to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, but these funds are already depleted.
Nonetheless, Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate made a formal commitment late on Thursday, before the debt ceiling bill passed. They promised that the spending caps would not prevent the Senate from passing supplemental spending legislation to provide more money to the Department of Defense, Reuters reported.
