WASHINGTON — The Pentagon rolled out a $849.8 billion budget request for fiscal year 2025 that includes $29.4 billion for the U.S. Space Force.
The $29.4 billion request represents a $600 million cut from the $30 billion the Defense Department sought for the newest military branch in fiscal 2024 – a plan that remains in limbo as Congress has kept the government funded via a series of stopgap spending bills.
Congress on February 29 passed the fourth continuing resolution for fiscal year 2024 extending funding for Defense and other federal agencies at 2023 levels until March 22.
The Biden administration is putting forth a 2025 defense budget request as defense spending faces a possible cut set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, legislation that Congress passed last summer capping discretionary spending across the board for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. Further, the act stipulates automatic across-the-board cuts if Congress fails to pass full-year appropriations measures by the end of April.
Todd Harrison, defense budget analyst and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute characterized the Space Force’s budget as “business as usual” that essentially matches the funding projections the Pentagon put out a year ago.
“Last year they projected $29.5 billion for the Space Force in fiscal year 2025,” said Harrison. “This request is pretty close to that.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said during a meeting with reporters that the 2025 request is an “acceptable” budget for the Space Force, but not an optimal one, The proposed funding allows key space programs to move forward but not quite at the pace that DoD would like to stay ahead of the Chinese threat, said Kendall.
The backdrop for DoD’s budget request is China’s accelerated pace of technological innovation in space, which DoD views as a “pacing threat.” Another concern for the Space Force is boosting the resilience of U.S. space…
Read the full article here
