Indications are that President Obama will submit his FY16 President’s Budget Request (PBR) to Congress on 2 February 2015 for the annual legislative review.
IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets expects that the FY16 base budget will be submitted above the Budget Control Act cap of $499 billion, meaning that the possibility of automatic budget cuts (sequestration) in FY16 looms large over the process.
It has been reported that the base budget will hover at around $534 billion, and OCO fall to $50.9 billion, giving a total of $585 billion. IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets expects requests for Army, Navy and Air Force to all exceed the FY15 enacted totals.
Once submitted, the PBR will go through the annual Congressional review process of authorization committees and appropriations committees, hoping to have a new FY16 approved Department of Defence budget by 1 October 2015, the start of the government fiscal year.
The Department of Defence base budget submission has been flat for three years, at around $496 billion in discretionary budget authority. The OCO portion of the budget has continued to decline year over year since 2010.