Biden’s FY2024 budget request

Speaking Security Newsletter | Note n°198 | 9 March 2023

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Situation

Joe Biden rolled out his spending request for fiscal year 2024 today. I’ll have (much) more to say about the proposal later, but I wanted to first provide a quick overview of its core. The $1.7 trillion Biden requested in base discretionary spending is the blueprint for what will eventually become ‘must-pass’ legislation, like the omnibus bill from December that funded the federal government for FY2023. This type of funding will likely be all that’s left after Congress scraps the progressive-leaning and dead-on-arrival provisions Biden lumped into the FY2024 request.

Analysis

I regret to inform you that much like his FY2023 discretionary budget, two-thirds of Biden’s spending proposal for FY2024 is for programs related to military, law enforcement, or prisons—i.e., the requested funding for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs, as well as for the National Nuclear Security Administration and Budget Function 150 military aid programs.

Alt text for screen readers: Biden’s budget proposes $1.1 trillion in military and law enforcement spending. Biden requested $1.7 trillion in base discretionary funding for fiscal year 2024. This greenish pie chart has three slices: Pentagon, $886 billion; social programs, $584 billion; and $225 billion for Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, State Department military aid programs, and Justice Department funding related to prisons and law enforcement.

-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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