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

On Thursday, we wrote we couldn’t do our annual table laying out the Pentagon (Budget Function 051) request versus the National Defense (Budget Function 050) request because not all the numbers were in the initial, skinny, budget materials made available by the Office of Management and Budget.

We don’t do our analysis based on leaked details reported by news outlets. We do our analysis based on actual budget documents. And we read them, so you don’t have to. But even the official budget documents aren’t infallible, as the original OMB document seems to contain a typographical error regarding the National Nuclear Security Administration. Under “Modernizes Nuclear Deterrent”, it states, “The Budget also provides $23.8 billion to the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration…”.

Imagine the sound of a buzzer at a basketball game here. (BTW, have you filled out your bracket yet?)

As we wrote last week, this would have represented a 20% cut from the FY23 request, and that just didn’t seem likely. And we were right. NNSA accounts for a portion, but not all, of the so-called Budget Function 053, “Atomic Energy Defense Activities” which totals $32.8 billion. These two numbers, combined with ambiguity in the original press release from the Office of Management and Budget, made for some uncertainty about how and where all this money is to be spent. In addition to NNSA funding, the Energy Department budget includes about $7.5 billion for environmental clean-up at DOE weapons sites, plus another roughly $2.5 billion for miscellaneous “Atomic energy defense activities.”

Details, details.

Also, you’re probably seeing a “National Defense Topline” of $886.3 billion. That conveniently leaves out the mandatory spending which is on a sharp upward trajectory. Last year’s level was $11.3 billion. This year? Just under $21.5 billion. What is driving that trend? “Concurrent receipt accrual payments to the Military Retirement Fund” which roughly doubled from $10.6 billion in FY23 to $20.7 billion for FY24.

When you add in mandatory spending which is…mandatory, after all…the total is more than $907 billion.

As always, we’ll be digging into the details as the military service budgets are released.