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April 5, 2018
FY2018 Defense Appropriations Act: An Overview
The FY2018 defense appropriations bill, Division C of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 (H.R. 1625; P.L.
115-141), appropriates $647 billion for the Department of
Defense (DOD). This amounts to an increase of $61 billion
(about 10%) over the enacted FY2017 level and an increase
of $24 billion over the President’s FY2018 budget request
for such activities.
H.R. 1625 is commonly referred to as an omnibus
appropriation, a legislative vehicle comprised of several
annual appropriations bills that fund the federal
government. The House passed H.R. 1625 on March 22,
2018. The Senate passed the bill in the early hours of March
23, 2018, and the President signed it later that day. Since
October 1, 2017, the start of FY2018, Congress had passed
five continuing resolutions to keep the government running
at approximately the FY2017 funding level.
H.R. 1625 conforms to the spending limits (or caps) on
defense and non-defense spending established by the
Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25) and
amended by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA of
2018; P.L. 115-123).
DOD Appropriations
Division C of H.R. 1625 is named the Department of
Defense Appropriations Act, 2018. It appropriates $647
billion in discretionary funding for DOD, comprising $582
billion in the base budget and $65 billion for the “Global
War on Terrorism” (GWOT), also known as Overseas
Contingency Operations (OCO), according to the
recapitulation in the explanatory statement accompanying
the bill. Division D provides appropriations for defense-
related nuclear energy programs and Division J provides
appropriations for military construction and family housing.
In Line with Revised Spending Cap
According to the Congressional Budget Office,
discretionary base defense funding provided by Division C
of H.R. 1625 (i.e., excluding GWOT/OCO funding)
combined with defense-related funding provided by other
parts of the bill and by other prior partial appropriations
would bring total FY2018 discretionary appropriations for
national defense (budget function 050) to $629 billion—the
amount allowed by the revised discretionary spending cap
enacted in February under the Bipartisan Budget Act of
2018. This figure excludes GWOT/OCO and emergency
funding, which is not subject to the spending restrictions.
(For more on the defense budget function, see CRS In
Focus IF10618, Defense Primer: The National Defense
Budget Function (050), by Christopher T. Mann. For more
on the revised spending caps, see CRS Report R44874, The
Budget Control Act: Frequently Asked Questions, by Grant
A. Driessen and Megan S. Lynch.)
More Procurement, RDT&E, O&M Funding
Lawmakers funded all titles in the defense bill at amounts
higher than enacted FY2017 levels, as shown in Table 1. In
terms of percentage, Procurement rose 23% to $134 billion;
Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E)
increased 22% to $88 billion; Operation and Maintenance
(O&M) rose 12% to $188 billion; and Revolving and
Management Funds increased 12% to $1.7 billion.
Procurement was the category with the biggest increase
over the President’s request.
Selected Highlights
The legislation includes a number of changes to personnel,
policy and weapons programs.
Personnel/Policy
More Military Personnel. The bill includes $222
million to expand the military to 1.32 million active-
duty personnel and 816,900 Guard and Reserve
personnel, an increase of 20,300 from the enacted
FY2017 level and an increase of 9,500 from the
President’s request.
2.4% Military Pay Raise. The bill includes $206
million to pay for the largest military pay raise since
2010, a figure in keeping with private-sector wage
growth as measured by the Department of Labor. Like
other civilian employees, DOD civilian employees are
to receive a 1.9% raise.
Funding Flexibility. The bill includes a one-year
change to the “80/20 rule” to allow DOD to spend up to
25% rather than 20% of its funding in the last two
months of the fiscal year and another one-year change to
let officials transfer (or reprogram) funding for certain
readiness-related programs without prior congressional
approval.
Readiness Boost. In addition to the $188 billion in the
base budget for O&M, the bill includes most of the
GWOT/OCO appropriation ($50 billion) for O&M. The
increase is designed in part to support “key readiness
programs.” A $1.3 billion increase from the President’s
request is earmarked for U.S. Pacific Command
readiness alone.
Special Victims’ Counsel. The bill adds $35 million for
the Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC) within the Defense
Human Resources Agency, a program intended to
address the problem of military sexual assault.
Weapons Programs
More F-35s. The bill includes $45 billion for aircraft
procurement, $9.2 billion above the President’s request.
Nearly 30% of the increased amount, $2.6 billion, would
go toward buying 20 F-35 aircraft over the 70 planes
