For the first time ever, the Pentagon is set to spend a year without a full congressional budget — a sharp drop in spending that threatens to throttle the military’s work, from weapons programs to training.
The Senate passed a six-month continuing resolution, or temporary spending bill Friday, after Congress failed to reach a budget deal before a midnight deadline. The bill includes an extra $6 billion for the military, but otherwise freezes spending at the last fiscal year’s levels, or around $825 billion.
Considering Congress didn’t pass a supplemental defense bill, as it has in recent years for Ukraine, that amounts to a 10.6% drop in military spending, according to data provided by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The massive cut comes at a bizarre moment for Pentagon spending, which is being pushed in multiple directions by multiple parts of the government.
On one side are those pushing to cut, or at least reallocate, parts of that budget. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he plans to fire 5% to 8% of the civilian workforce and also shift around $50 billion in future funding requests toward his priorities. Add to that the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk’s attempt to slash the federal government, which is already identifying cuts to defense spending.
On the other end are officials calling for massive increases to the defense budget. Senate Republicans, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, want to add $150 billion to the military starting in fiscal 2026 and are in negotiations to do so. The White House, meanwhile, has pledged to surge America’s sluggish shipbuilding industry and build a “golden dome” missile defense system so ambitious that a general last week likened its goals to the Manhattan Project.
“It’s pushing on the gas with one foot and the brakes with two feet,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, an expert on defense spending at the American Enterprise Institute.
Temporary spending bills, such as the one passed Friday, usually stunt the military’s growth, halting new programs and production lines. This one is different. In order to limit the damage to the military, the bill allows such flexibility for weapons programs included in the House and Senate’s proposed defense spending bills, which are now otherwise obsolete.
Congressional aides said these exceptions will help the Pentagon avoid the whiplash involved in these short-term spending bills, which have become a chronic issue as Congress fails to pass budgets on time.
Military leaders were less sanguine.
“We are seeing an enormous amount of threats emerging every single year, and it is very hard to get after those threats when you have to wait two to four years to get the budget,” said Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, in a Senate hearing last week.
Appearing alongside him, the vice chief of naval operations argued that the lack of a full budget will further delay maintenance for America’s warships, one-fifth of which are on track to miss their schedules.
“It’ll certainly be a setback,” said Adm. James Kilby.
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The Trump administration has promised a reindustrialization of America, and in response started slapping tariffs on countries from China to Canada to members of the European Union. Those last two include 25% levies on steel and aluminum, which will likely increase costs for American arms makers and, by extension, the Pentagon.
That said, analysts who study defense spending said it was still too early to tell how much those costs will grow.
“It’s unmeasurable” at this point, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
A massive surge in the military’s budget, like Wicker is calling for, could help limit the issues caused by the continuing resolution’s sudden drop in spending, Montgomery argued. But military leaders would need to know how much money is coming and how it will be divided among the services.
Those factors haven’t yet been decided in Congress, and without answers, the Pentagon is planning its future budgets without knowing how much money it will have or what programs it might need to sacrifice.
“It’s pretty devastating,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the Air Force’s acting head of space acquisition and integration.
The drop in funding is one problem, Purdy said, speaking with reporters last week. But a much bigger one is the stiff rules about how the military can spend its money, forced by temporary spending bills like this one.
The continuing resolution allots more authority than usual to the Pentagon, including the ability to carry over more money from the previous fiscal year without letting it expire. It also allows more flexibility for the administration to move around funds without Congress’ approval.
But the extent to which that freedom will help is not yet clear, leaving officials like Purdy confused and discouraged.
“If we’re not allowed to move money where we need to move with congressional approvals … we’re basically just going to run off a cliff on many programs, and we’re going to be all-stop across the board,” he said. “It’s going to be kind of a disaster.”
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
