US EditionDefense budget increase hinges on reconciliation success
- The Trump administration unveiled its fiscal 2026 budget request on May 2, seeking $1.011 trillion for national defense, mainly for the Pentagon, reflecting a 13.4% increase over 2025 levels.
- This proposed defense increase depends on passage of a Republican-led reconciliation bill offering $150 billion in additional mandatory defense funding, which bypasses the usual 60-vote Senate threshold.
- The budget includes a 3.8% military pay raise and aims to cut non-defense discretionary spending by about 22%, affecting agencies like Health and Human Services and IT programs.
- Senators Susan Collins and Roger Wicker expressed concern, with Wicker calling the budget inadequate and a real cut after inflation, while administration officials called it the largest military increase ever.
- If reconciliation fails, defense spending will likely see no increase in 2026, highlighting uncertain congressional support amid tensions between national security priorities and domestic funding cuts.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Gary Franks: The Military-Industrial Complex vs. mental health
Today, Congress plans to spend more than a trillion dollars on our national defense, homeland security, and intelligence gathering activities. Thanks to these efforts we have not had any attacks on American soil since 9/11. Prior to 9/11, however, mainland America had not been attacked either and we were not spending trillions of dollars. This begs the question: Would trillions of dollars still be needed? It is also important to note that in 202…
White House eyes reconciliation to get 2026 budget increase
The first-look at the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request is a tale of have and have nots. The departments of Defense and Homeland Security will see record discretionary requests when the Trump administration sends its full budget to Congress in the coming months. This version is commonly called the “skinny budget” request. Meanwhile, civilian agencies are facing drastic budget cuts. To get these increases, which would push DoD past the $1 …
A trillion for the military: Trump's request for the next year
American President Donald Trump will demand that in the budget for the next year as much as 1,000 billion dollars be provided for the army, which is almost 110 billion more than the item in this year's budget.
Defense budget increase hinges on reconciliation success
The White House made official Friday that President Donald Trump wants the first ever $1 trillion defense budget. Yet Trump will not be able to increase defense spending at all above current levels — in fact it would decrease after accounting for inflation — unless a narrowly divided Congress sends him a reconciliation bill containing a huge increase for defense in fiscal 2026, hardly a given. White House officials unveiled on Friday morning a s…
Trump administration to request $1T defense budget using reconciliation funds
Some Republican defense hawks in Congress are already expressing disappointment for the plan, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker outright stating that the administration “is not requesting a trillion dollar budget.”
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