The annual Department of Defense Appropriations Act primarily funds U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) activities except for military construction and family housing programs. It also funds certain activities of the intelligence community.
The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 (Division A of P.L. 118-47) provided a total of $814.4 billion—$1.7 billion (0.2%) less than the President's budget request. Including funding for medical insurance for military retirees and excluding nondefense funding, defense discretionary funding in the act totaled $824.3 billion. That amounted to 93% of the $886.3 billion defense spending cap Congress established in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA; P.L. 118-5). Certain types of funding, including funding designated for emergency requirements, are effectively exempt from the FRA spending limits. See Table 1.
This product provides a summary of funding in the House-passed version of the act (H.R. 4365; H.Rept. 118-121), Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC)-reported version (S. 2587; S.Rept. 118-81), and enacted version of the act.
On June 15, 2023, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) adopted draft FY2024 subcommittee allocations, including for the Subcommittee on Defense (HAC-D). According to the committee, the total defense funding across the subcommittees was equal to the amount allowed under the FRA defense cap. H.R. 4365 would have provided $816.4 billion—$0.3 billion (0.04%) more funding than requested, with no funds emergency-designated.
S. 2587
On June 22, 2023, the SAC reported its FY2024 subcommittee allocations (S.Rept. 118-45), including for the Subcommittee on Defense (SAC-D). (These allocations were subsequently revised, most recently on July 26; S.Rept. 118-78). According to CBO, the total defense funding across the subcommittees was equal to the amount allowed under the FRA defense cap. S. 2587 would have provided $821.2 billion—$5.1 billion (0.6%) more than requested. The bill would have provided a total of $8 billion in emergency-designated funding for unfunded priorities of the military services and combatant commands, operational readiness, revised economic assumptions due to inflation, support of the armed forces of Taiwan, defense industrial base capacity and workforce enhancement, and revised economic assumptions for fuel.
P.L. 118-47, Division A
The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 (Division A of P.L. 118-47) provided $814.4 billion—$1.7 billion (0.2%) less than requested. In terms of major DOD appropriation titles, the act provided more funding than requested for procurement ($3.0 billion, or 1.8%) and research, development, test, & evaluation ($3.4 billion, or 2.4%); and less funding than requested for military personnel (-$2.6 billion, or 1.6%) and operation and maintenance ($2.9 billion, or 1.0%). The act also included $4.4 billion in rescissions to unspent funds from prior years.
Prior obligations of budget authority in the FY2024 continuing resolutions from October 1, 2023, through March 22, 2024 (P.L. 118-15; P.L. 118-22; P.L. 118-35; and P.L. 118-40) will be charged to the funding provided by this act.
Table 1. Funding in Proposed and Enacted Versions of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 (H.R. 4365; S. 2587; P.L. 118-47, Div. A)
(in billions of dollars of budget authority)
|
Title |
FY2023 Enacted (P.L. 117-328, Div. C)a |
FY2024 House-Passed (H.R. 4365) |
FY2024 SAC-Reported |
FY2024 Enacted (P.L. 118-47, Div. A) |
% Change (FY2024 enacted- request) |
|
|
Military Personnel |
$162.97 |
$168.32 |
$167.37 |
$165.98 |
$165.69 |
-1.6% |
|
Operation and Maintenance |
$278.08 |
$293.06 |
$289.92 |
$287.19 |
-1.0% |
|
|
Procurement |
$162.24 |
$169.06 |
$165.06 |
$169.45 |
$172.03 |
+1.8% |
|
Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation |
$139.76 |
$144.88 |
$146.84 |
$143.38 |
$148.32 |
+2.4% |
|
Revolving and Management Funds |
$1.65 |
$1.68 |
$1.67 |
$1.80 |
$1.79 |
+6.2% |
|
Other DOD Programs |
$41.75 |
$40.92 |
$42.13 |
$41.70 |
$42.70 |
+4.3% |
|
Related Agencies |
$1.08 |
$1.16 |
$1.12 |
$1.12 |
$1.14 |
-2.1% |
|
Intelligence Community Management Account |
$0.56 |
$0.65 |
$0.61 |
$0.60 |
$0.63 |
-3.8% |
|
CIA Retirement and Disability System Fund (mandatory) |
$0.51 |
$0.51 |
$0.51 |
$0.51 |
$0.51 |
- |
|
General Provisions |
$0.94 |
- |
-$0.88 |
$7.86 |
$-4.44 |
- |
|
Emergency funding |
- |
- |
- |
|||
|
Net rescissions and other funding |
-0.88 |
-$0.14 |
$-4.44 |
- |
||
|
Total, Funding in the Bill |
$788.47 |
$816.09 |
$816.38 |
$821.20 |
$814.41 |
-0.2% |
|
Military Personnel (TRICARE accrual payments)d |
$9.74 |
$10.55 |
$10.56 |
$10.56 |
- |
|
|
Scorekeeping adjustments |
$.04 |
$.03 |
$.03 |
$.03 |
$.03 |
0.0% |
|
Total, Discretionary Funding Associated with the Bill |
$797.74 |
$826.16 |
$831.27f |
-0.2% |
||
|
$798.25 |
$826.68 |
$831.78f |
$825.00f |
-0.2% |
Source: CRS analysis of explanatory statement accompanying P.L. 117-328, Division C, as published in U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, H.R. 2617/P.L. 117-328 [Legislative Text and Explanatory Statement], Book 1 of 2, Divisions A-F, committee print, 117th Cong., 2nd sess., 2023, 50-347, pp. 765-784; H.Rept. 118-121 accompanying H.R. 4365, pp. 311-325; S.Rept. 118-81 accompanying S. 2587, pp. 284-287; and the explanatory statement accompanying P.L. 118-47, Division A, as published in the House, Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book 3 (March 22, 2024), pp. H1725-H1740.
Notes: Totals may not sum due to rounding. Dollars rounded to nearest hundredth.
a. To facilitate direct comparison of the FY2023 act with the FY2024 act, FY2023 data exclude supplemental appropriations.
b. Amounts in this column reflect those in H.Rept. 118-121, which included slightly lower requested amounts for Operation and Maintenance and TRICARE accrual payments than S.Rept. 118-81.
c. S. 2587 included general provisions that would provide a total of $8 billion in emergency funding, which is effectively exempt from budget enforcement under the subcommittee allocations or the statutory discretionary caps.
d. The funding tables in H.Rept. 118-121 and S.Rept. 118-81 include, both in the amount requested for Military Personnel by the Administration and in the amount recommended by the committees, approximately $10.6 billion appropriated as an accrual payment to the Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund, which provides TRICARE for Life medical insurance for military retirees. Since this payment is made automatically under a provision of permanent law (10 U.S.C. §§1111-1117), these funds are not provided by annual defense appropriations acts even though they are treated as discretionary funding for purposes of the congressional budget process.
e. For these FY2024 totals, see the breakdowns at H.Rept. 118-121, p. 303.
f. For these FY2024 totals, see the breakdowns at S.Rept. 118-81, p. 283.
g. Figure includes $187 million in nondefense funding. including $15 million for the DOD-VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund and $172 million for the Joint DOD-VA Medical Facility Demonstration Fund. For these FY2024 totals, see the explanatory statement accompanying P.L. 118-47, Division A, as published in the House, Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book 3 (March 22, 2024), pp. H1725-H1740.
h. These amounts include the $0.51 billion in appropriated mandatory funding for the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement Fund and Disability System Fund.
Document ID: IN12234