FY2025 Defense Appropriations: Summary of Funding (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Sept. 18, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IN12425 |
| Report Type |
Insight |
| Authors |
Cameron M. Keys |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Congress annually determines whether to authorize and/or appropriate funds for the Department of
Defense and related activities at amounts greater than, less than, or equal to a presidential administration’s
requests. The Department of Defense Appropriations Act is one of 12 appropriations measures typically
reported by the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. The act funds U.S. Department of
Defense (DOD) military programs except for military construction and family housing. It also funds
certain activities of the intelligence community (IC). This product summarizes funding levels in House
(H.R. 8774; H.Rept. 118-557) and Senate (S. 4921; S.Rept. 118-204) versions of a Department of Defense
Appropriations Act, 2025. See Table 1.
On March 11, 2024, the Biden Administration released an FY2025 budget requesting a total of $7.484
trillion in new budget authority. Of this total, DOD requested $849.8 billion (11.35% of the federal
request) in discretionary funding and $22.4 billion (or 0.3%) in mandatory funding. Of the discretionary
total, DOD identified $832.2 billion associated with the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2025,
including $11.0 billion in mandatory contributions to the Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund
(MERHCF) that are scored as DOD discretionary spending. According to H.Rept. 118-557 and S.Rept.
118-204, the portion of the President’s budget request associated with the annual defense appropriation
act totaled $833.4 billion. In addition to MERHCF, these figures include DOD’s discretionary
contribution of $0.6 billion to an IC Management Account administered by the Director of National
Intelligence and a mandatory contribution of $0.5 billion to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Retirement and Disability System.
DOD’s FY2025 discretionary budget request—often called the base budget—presented the Biden
Administration’s view of the funds required to implement the National Defense Strategy under acceptable
risk and “consistent with the mandatory caps approved by Congress under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of
2023” (FRA; P.L. 118-5). The base budget request excluded DOD unfunded priorities submitted to
Congress in accordance with 10 USC §222a, 10 USC §222b and 10 USC §222e, along with any
supplemental funding requests.
