President Biden’s new topline budget designates $715 billion for the Defense Department. The proposal would cut the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, created to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The proposal would move the OCO portion of the budget, which has totaled about $69 billion per year, into the base defense budget, explained Todd Harrison, Director of Defense Budget Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
- Harrison said some of the $15 billion to $20 billion that finances operations in Afghanistan would remain as long as the U.S. continues to support the Afghan government and military to counter terrorism. The U.S. would probably save about $5 billion to $10 billion a year removing all U.S. troops, Harrison said.
- Harrison said the $715 billion DoD budget proposal is an increase from $704 billion last fiscal year but does not keep pace with inflation; however, the full budget request expected next month will be more informative.
