This article is part of our President’s FY2024 Budget Request Coverage. Visit our Rolling Analysis Page for more.

The budget function that covers all of “National Defense” spending is formally referred to as Budget Function 050 – shout out to all our fellow budget nerds out there!

Usually, on the day the federal budget request is released, we produce a chart showing how Pentagon spending (Budget Function 051), the nuclear weapons spending at the Department of Energy (Budget Function 053), other Defense Related Activities (Budget Function 054) and even mandatory spending all add up to a National Defense topline of X.

We can’t quantify X for you today because we simply don’t have enough information. What we do know is the 051 request for the Pentagon is $842 billion – a 3.2% increase over the enacted level in the recent Omnibus Appropriations Act.

There are no detailed tables for how Department of Energy spending is broken down, but the Office of Management and Budget narrative says the request for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees production of nuclear warheads, is $23.8 billion – a reduction of $5.9 billion or 20% below the Fiscal Year 2023 request of $29.7 billion.

The two figures we do know total $865.8 billion. But that’s not all the data we need to identify all spending in Budget Function 050.

Last year’s request for Budget Function 054 was $10.6 billion. And mandatory spending at the Pentagon was $13.6 billion. Until we know what those numbers are in the Fiscal Year 2024 request, we don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle – just the edges!