On The Hill

FIRST IN MORNING D: Top GOP appropriators proposed nearly $15 billion in increased funding for hundreds of Pentagon procurement and research programs as they seek to guide DOD spending during a full-year stopgap, according to an analysis from fiscal watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense obtained by Connor

By the numbers: Revised funding tables sent to DOD by SAC-D Chair Mitch McConnell and HAC-D Chair Ken Calvert last month included 463 different program increases — in which lawmakers boost funding for projects above what the Pentagon requested — totaling $14.9 billion, the group’s spending database shows. Procurement programs saw $5.4 billion in hikes while R&D efforts were boosted $9.5 billion under the plan.

The total under the stopgap is still well below the $21.3 billion in program increases lawmakers approved in last year’s Pentagon funding bill.

The stopgap includes about a $6 billion boost for the Pentagon coupled with cuts to non-defense programs. It also gives the Pentagon more latitude than past stopgaps to shift money and start new programs.

But: McConnell and Calvert sent DOD the tables to convey “congressional intent,” as POLITICO first reported. But the Pentagon doesn’t need to abide by the recommendations.

‘Broken system’: The report argues the congressional program increases function as “backdoor earmarks,” contribute to wasteful spending and lack transparency — particularly with the latest stopgap.

“The Constitution gave Congress the power of the purse so that spending decisions would reflect the will of the people,” said Gabe Murphy, a policy analyst with Taxpayers for Common Sense. “But now two lawmakers are claiming that funding tables they wrote and slipped over to the Pentagon reflect the will of the Congress.”

“The problem is lawmakers didn’t have these tables before they voted on the CR package,” he said. “This is what a broken system looks like.”