Pentagon officials touted their fiscal 2026 spending plan as a $1 trillion investment oriented to counter China but that amount combines a proposed base budget of $848.3 billion with $113.3 billion that the White House is seeking through a massive tax cut and spending bill yet to be passed by Congress. (Robert H. Reid/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department on Thursday called for a $961.6 billion budget for fiscal 2026 that gives troops a pay raise and reallocates $30 billion in savings from cuts to the civilian workforce, Ukraine assistance and diversity and climate programs to higher priorities.
Pentagon officials touted the spending plan as a $1 trillion investment oriented to counter China, but that amount combines a proposed base budget of $848.3 billion with $113.3 billion that the White House is seeking through a massive tax cut and spending bill yet to be passed by Congress.
The legislation provides $150 billion for the Pentagon to spend in the next 10 years and is part of a politically divisive domestic policy mega-bill that Republicans are hoping to enact over the objection of Democrats through a process called reconciliation.
A top Senate official rejected a host of major provisions in the bill Thursday but a senior defense official speaking on condition of anonymity expressed confidence the legislation would ultimately pass. Republicans have set a July 4 deadline for getting the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk.
“We’re very excited to see the Senate’s progress on reconciliation, very happy that the House has been collaborating on the defense portion, and we have been working with HASC and SASC,” the official said, referring to the congressional armed services committees.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized the Defense Department for factoring the bill into a budget request that keeps spending the same as the current year, calling it a “sleight of hand.”
Total spending on national defense, including certain nuclear programs run by the Department of Energy, would total $892 billion without the reconciliation bill. Fiscal 2026 begins Oct. 1.
The senior defense official said the Pentagon’s budget request calls for $25 billion for Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield, and $5 billion for military operations on the U.S.-Mexico border, but both of those priorities are part of the pending reconciliation legislation.
The Senate Armed Services Committee released an updated version of the bill on Wednesday that slashes the $3.3 billion that senators had initially allocated for the border mission to $1 billion. House Republicans had approved $5 billion for border operations in their version of the legislation.
The Pentagon’s budget request solidifies nearly $30 billion in “efficiencies and reductions” identified by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, the senior defense official said.
A large portion of those cuts — $13.8 billion — comes from reducing the civilian workforce and contracts and cutting travel costs. The remainder is from the elimination of “wasteful and unnecessary” spending on climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and “misaligned” security assistance programs, the official said.
One of the affected programs is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which for years allowed Ukraine to purchase goods directly from the defense industry.
The official declined to explain the rationale for targeting the program but said Pentagon officials conducted a review of foreign assistance programs to determine which ones were “no longer aligned with this administration.”
The $30 billion in total cuts would instead be redirected into “high-priority programs increasing lethality and readiness,” the official said.
A senior military official said the Pentagon plans to earmark the money for the Golden Dome and munitions investments as well as unaccompanied housing and other programs “taking care of our force.”
“We were able to realign those funds and pump up some of those areas where we felt like we needed to add resources and really go after the competition that we’re in today for both adding homeland defense capabilities and countering the PRC,” the official said, referring to China.
The size of the armed forces is set to increase by 25,000 personnel under the budget request owing to an unusually robust recruiting tempo in recent months. The Navy in particular wants to grow its end strength by 6,000 to close personnel gaps at sea, a Navy official said.
All service members would see a 3.8% pay boost under the proposed budget.
The plan includes about $160 billion for military readiness and training as well as $60 billion for modernizing nuclear weapons programs, $6.5 billion for munitions, and billions more for investments in the defense industrial base and technology to compete with Chinese innovation.
The total request includes $197.4 billion for the Army, $292.2 billion for the Navy and Marine Corps, $209.6 billion for the Air Force, $39.9 billion for the Space Force and $170.9 for defense-wide activities.
The release of the full budget proposal comes months past its due date.
Appropriators in the House moved forward with their own defense spending legislation earlier this month, advancing an $831.5 billion measure that keeps the Pentagon budget flat for fiscal 2026.
The bill also leaves out funding for Ukraine. House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said he could not risk losing Republican votes for the legislation, but lawmakers will work to provide aid for the embattled country through other means.
The senior defense official made clear Thursday that deterring China is the Trump administration’s top priority.
“We’re very confident that our $961 [billion] budget in these two lanes will give the [Defense] Department what it needs for the China fight,” the official said.
