The new GOP coronavirus relief proposal includes $29.4 billion total in new funds for the Department of Defense, $8.05 billion of which is for procurement and acquisition. Congress is already in the end stages of approving a $740 billion defense budget. While there are some COVID-related provisions for the Pentagon in this relief proposal, the bulk of the funds are for defense pork projects. Nearly all of these funds will be available for 2+ years, undermining the urgency of the “emergency relief” funding. The proposal also would give the Pentagon another year to spend the $10 billion allocated to the DoD in the CARES Act [p. 31 of the bill].
The text of the bill, to claim that each item below fits into response to the Coronavirus, labels each item:
- “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, and
- “designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement [emphasis added] pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.”
DoD Provisions Related to Coronavirus Response:
- $5,300,000,000 Coronavirus Defense Production Act Purchases
- $1,450,000,000 shall be only for four expeditionary medical ships
- $705,000,000 Defense Health Program
Select DoD Provisions Unrelated to Coronavirus Response:
Defense Industrial Base Resiliency Fund:
- $4,664,000,000 for Defense Industrial Base Resiliency Fund—Navy and Maine Corps
- $4,273,400,000 Defense Industrial Base Resiliency Fund—Air Force and Space Force
- $1,128,000,000 for Defense Industrial Base Resiliency Fund—Army
- $783,100,000 for Defense Industrial Base Resiliency Fund—Defense: Special Operations Command and Missile Defense Agency
Operation and Maintenance:
- $969,357,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Air Force
- $882,068,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Army
- $458,237,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Navy
- $153,000,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Navy, only for Ship depot maintenance
- $135,542,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Marine Corps
- $112,071,000 for Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide
Procurement:
- $1,068,000,000 shall be only for P-8A Poseidon: Additional aircraft [Boeing]
- $720,000,000 shall be only for C–130J: Additional aircraft [Lockheed Martin]
- $686,000,000 shall be only for F–35A: Additional aircraft [Lockheed Martin]
- $650,000,000 shall be only for A–10: Wing replacements [Boeing]
- $375,000,000 shall only be for Stryker Upgrade: Stryker DVHA1 [General Dynamics]
- $283,000,000 shall only be for AH–64 Apache Block IIIB New Build: Additional AH–64 Helicopters [Boeing]
- $49,100,000 shall only be for Sonobuoys—All Types [A tactical sonar system for transmitting submarine activity]
- $48,500,000 for Other Procurement, Army
- $40,100,000 shall be only for Manned ISR: One DHC–8 combat loss replacement
- $34,823,000 for Other Procurement, Navy
- $19,500,00 for Other Procurement, Army
Research, Development, Test and Evaluation:
- $20,931,000 for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide
- $20,000,000 shall be only for United States Marine Corps Force Design unfunded requirements
- $20,000,000 shall be only for F-35 C2D2: F-35 JASSM integration
- $1,494,000 for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force
Shipbuilding and Conversion:
- $260,000,000 shall be only for one EPF Expeditionary Fast Transport ship [built by Austal in Mobile, AL – home state of Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby – funding which had been previously cut in Trump’s border wall reprogramming]
- $250,000,000 shall be only for amphibious shipbuilding programs
- $250,000,000 shall be only for the surface combatant supplier base program
Missile Defense:
- $319,595,000 shall be only for THAAD: BMDS AN/TPY–2 Radars and THAAD Battery #8
- $290,000,000 shall be only for Space Development Agency – Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor
- $200,000,000 shall be only for Missile Defense Agency: Ground-based Mid-Course Defense Service Life Extension Program [Boeing]
- $65,800,000 shall be only for Missile Defense Agency: Hypersonic Defense unfunded requirements
- $39,200,000 shall be only for Missile Defense Agency: Cruise missile defense indications and warning unfunded requirements
Non-DoD Provisions Unrelated to Coronavirus Response:
- $1,750,000,000 shall be for the design and construction of a Washington, DC headquarters facility for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- $999,850,000 for NASA Exploration and Space Operations
- $306,000,000 for necessary expenses related to research and development and related activities, including equipment, enabling technologies, and personnel associated with the operations of Department of Energy scientific user facilities
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