Pentagon Spending

Instead of giving the Pentagon and weapons contractors an additional $16.4 billion to fund their wish list for weapons and war, the American people deserve to get their own unfunded needs met. This year, FCNL’s People’s Unfunded Priorities List highlights four key areas where these additional funds could be better spent supporting human needs.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) deplores today’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (H.R 2670) by the House of Representatives.

FCNL lamented the status of the debt ceiling votes in Congress, making clear that negotiating the fate of social programs, benefits for low-income families, veterans’ affairs, and other government services under the threat of a catastrophic default and ensuing economic chaos is no way to manage the country’s fiscal affairs.

For too long, the Pentagon has been treated as a sacred cow in budget negotiations.

If you’re looking for where the action in the 118th Congress will occur, look no further than the federal budget. Some of the most contentious and consequential policy decisions emerging from Capitol Hill this year will center on federal spending decisions.

For 2024, President Biden requested the largest military budget in history — $886 billion.

Last month, Reps. Barbara Lee (CA-12) and Mark Pocan (WI-2) reintroduced the People Over Pentagon Act (H.R. 1134), a bill that would cut $100 billion from the Pentagon budget and redirect this funding to address pressing human needs, including education, healthcare and addressing the climate crisis.

With some issues, the right and wrong paths are so abundantly clear that it makes one wonder why there’s even a debate at all.  

Today, 59 groups sent a letter to President Biden with a simple message: Reduce the Pentagon budget and redirect those funds towards priorities that actually meet the needs of the American people.

Threatening our nation’s credit to extract policy concessions is an irresponsible political gambit with far-reaching consequences. If lawmakers are genuinely concerned about reining in federal spending, there are better places to put energy than the debt ceiling debate. Instead, they might look to the Pentagon.