Defense spending authorization is funding bureaucratic wish lists

In 2017, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act requiring chiefs of staff of the military services to submit lists of their unfunded needs so that money could be found to pay for these needs. Later, defense bills have expanded this requirement to other defense agencies and components.

These wish lists, known also as Unfunded Priority Lists (UPLs), allow the military to increase their budgets. Submitting these wish lists is a requirement of the 2017 law even though this process circumvents the normal budgeting process.

In recent years these unfunded lists have added up to more than 20 billion dollars a year. There is a bill before Congress (HR 4740) to drop these extra-budgetary wish lists. This bill has bipartisan support and the support of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. We can probably all agree that current federal deficits are large, and we need to spend our money wisely. It is time to repel the laws which require Congress to spend our money without their review.

At this time, we should encourage our congressional representatives to support HR 4740. By passing HR 4740 Congress will regain more control over the federal budget.

George Bergus

Iowa City