New requests bring military’s ‘unfunded priorities’ above $21 billion – By John M. Donnelly (Roll Call) / April 18, 2022
The Pentagon wants $318 million more to combat Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles
Pentagon brass have asked Congress for nearly $1 billion for anti-missile and cybersecurity programs that are not part of President Joe Biden’s budget request, bringing to more than $21 billion the so-called unfunded priorities the armed services and military commands are seeking for fiscal 2023.
The Missile Defense Agency’s $748 million request to Congress and U.S. Cyber Command’s $236 million request, expressed in a pair of documents obtained by CQ Roll Call, are the latest of a bevy of unfunded lists provided to Congress in recent weeks.
The lists have become a de facto addendum to each president’s annual budget. They provide a way for lawmakers to know which military priorities could benefit from extra funds, and they bolster hawks’ arguments that defense spending is not meeting all the military’s needs.
While the documents are commonly known as “wish lists,” Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., a leading hawk, prefers to call them “risk lists.”
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