Source:  Congressional Budget Office

• STATUS OF APPROPRIATIONS BILLS
• Defense Appropriations

Defense Discretionary Spending: $601 billion in FY 2017 outlays; 15% of Federal Outlays

• Defense Discretionary Spending:  (Almost all defense spending is categorized as discretionary, i.e., Congress decides each year how much to appropriate for each of the programs, projects and activities in the defense budget.
• Total Appropriations for Defense consists of:
  (1) Amounts appropriated under the statutory Defense/Security Cap of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (and later modified by the Bipartisan Budget Acts of 2013 and 2015); and
  (2) additional amounts appropriated “outside” the caps for “Overseas Contingency Operations.”  See the “Budget Overview” page for an explanation of the Budget Control Act and Spending Caps.   CRS: Defense Spending and the Budget Control Act Limits
• Overseas Contingency Operations:  The $601 billion amount includes $59 billion in appropriations designated for “Overseas Contingency Operations” (OCO), which are appropriations for “war-related” activities that are not subject to the statutory spending cap on security/defense spending set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (and later modified by the Bipartisan Budget Acts of 2013 and 2015).   Although OCO funding is intended to be war-related (hence the exemption from the annual spending caps), the funding provided for OCO includes some amounts intended to be used for regular activities of the Defense Department.
• U.S. currently spends more on defense than the next eight countries combined (China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, UK, Japan, Germany).  Source: PGPF
• Defense Spending as a Share of GDP:
  CBO: Growth in DOD’s Budget From 2000 to 2014

Background on Current Topics:

• Collection of CRS Reports on National Security Topics
• Collection of CRS Reports on Intelligence and Related Topics
• Collection of CRS Reports on Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control
• Collection of CRS Reports on Conventional Weapons Systems
• CBO: Long-Term Implications of the Future Years Defense Program (back to Jul 2003)
• CBO: Analysis of the Navy’s Shipbuilding Plan (back to Apr 2005)
• CBO: Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces (back to Dec 2013)
• NATO Article 5 Obligations – Background
• U.S. Defense Spending compared to other nations
• PolitiFact on U.S. Defense Spending compared to other nations
• CRS: NATO Burdensharing (2012 Report)
• CBO (2016): The U.S. Military’s Force Structure – A Primer
• CBO estimates that construction costs to build a fleet of 355 ships would average $26.6 billion (in 2017 dollars) per year over the next 30 years, which is 60 percent more than what the Navy has spent on average over the past 30 years.
• CBO: Growth in DoD Budget 2000 to 2014
• CRS Defense Spending Under the CR
• CRS: FY 2017 Defense Budget Request, Authorization, Appropriations
• CBO: Long Term Implications of the 2016 Future Years Defense Program
• CRS: Defense Quadrennial Review
• CRS: Defense Authorization and Appropriations Bills FY1970-FY2017