Even with a budget deal firmly set in law, the size and characteristics of the fiscal 2024 defense budget remain even more in flux than defense bills usually are this time of year.
A number of factors now in play could drive defense spending far above — or far below — the budget caps set in a law enacted earlier this month under pressure of a looming debt default.
Congress never knows in summer exactly how much will be spent on defense — or for what — in the fiscal year that starts each October. But more clarity might have been expected at this year’s midpoint, because of the new budget law’s caps on discretionary defense and nondefense appropriations in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, which permit modest growth in spending for both categories.
