Appropriations and Authorization for FY2002: Defense

Publication Date: February 2002

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Military and defense

Type:

Abstract:

On June 27, the Administration submitted an amended fiscal year 2002 defense budget request to Congress. The request totaled $343.5 billion in funding for the national defense budget function, $32.9 billion above the amount originally enacted for FY2001, an 11% increase. The total included funding for the Department of Defense and for defense-related activities of the Department of Energy and other agencies. Both House and Senate versions of the DOD appropriations bill provided the total for national defense that the Administration requested. To accommodate that level, Congress adjusted limitations in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and set aside provisions in this year’s concurrent budget resolution that were designed to protect the social security surplus.

With the onset of a recession last spring, along with higher defense spending and additional federal spending in response to the terrorist attacks, and lower revenues due to the tax cut, the government is expected to run a deficit as well as use all of the surplus generated by social security revenues. With the destruction of the World Trade Center and the extensive damage to the Pentagon by terrorists on September 11th, congressional concerns shifted from whether the overall federal budget could accommodate higher defense expenditures without spending the budget surplus to adding funding for defense programs that combat terrorism.

Funding to aid the victims and provide for recovery from the attacks, for the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and for other programs to combat terrorism, was approved in the $40 billion Emergency Terrorism Response supplemental appropriations act (P.L. 107-38) that passed Congress September 14, 2001. Of that total, DOD receives $17.5 billion of the total funding in the Emergency Terrorism Response supplemental, about 44% of the total (see P.L. 107-117 and H. Report. 107-350) with about 56% going to other agencies. Allocation of half of the $40 billion was included in P.L. 107-117/H.R. 3338, the FY2002 DOD appropriations act, which was signed by the President on January 10, 2002.

Although there had been broad bipartisan support for adding funds for recovery and response to the September 11 terrorism attacks, sharp differences emerged about whether the total amount was sufficient and whether the allocations matched the most critical priorities, particularly for New York and other homeland security needs. The President, however, threatened to veto any spending measure this year that went beyond the $40 billion. Faced with this threat, both the House and the Senate rejected proposals to add more emergency funding to H.R. 3338 when they passed the bill. Instead, within the $20 billion total that was acceptable to the President, the conference bill shifts $3.4 billion of the $7.3 billion funds allocated to Defense by the Administration to homeland security and recovery of New York.

The conference version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2002 was passed by the House and the Senate on December 13, 2001, and signed by the President on December 28, 2001 (P.L. 107-107/S. 1438,H.Rept. 107-333). The Act provides $343.3 billion as requested by the Administration and authorizes another round of base closures but delays the date to 2005, settling the chief issue in contention.