The Department of Defense (DoD) plans to propose military spending cuts alongside its fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request, according to a letter from Pentagon leaders to Congress.
The letter, dated March 5 and addressed to House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., responds to a Feb. 14 letter from Rep. Rogers and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asking military leaders “to identify infrastructure, weapons systems, programs, or processes that are no longer a priority.”
Lawmakers expected a response to their inquiries by March 1. However, instead of each service chief submitting a list of their low-priority initiatives, Dane Hughes, the acting assistant secretary of Defense for legislative affairs, said the department will update Congress on the results soon.
Hughes wrote that the department is currently working on its “Presidential Budget Relook,” which calls for realigning eight percent of the DoD budget, as it prepares to release its FY2026 budget request.
This “relook” comes in response to a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month for a departmentwide review to identify offsets in the agency’s budget that could be “realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for national defense.”
As part of this review, Hegseth tasked Pentagon leaders to review existing FY 2026 budget estimate submission in an “intent to reallocate resources away from low-impact areas, such as [diversity, equity, and inclusion] and climate programs, to capabilities on lethality and readiness.”
While it remains unclear which capabilities or accounts might be affected by this review, Hegseth provided some clarity in a video posted to X. He said 17 program categories have been exempted from consideration, including operations at the U.S. southern border, Virginia-class attack submarines, missile defense, munitions, one-way attack drones, and others. Hegseth also emphasized that this is a reshuffling of funds, not a cut.
Despite ongoing discussions about trimming the DoD budget, Republican lawmakers are pushing for increases in defense spending through several funding avenues, including the continuing resolution (CR) bills to extend government funding at FY2024 levels. The House narrowly passed the latest CR bill with a 217-213 vote on Tuesday afternoon, and the Senate was expected to vote on the measure on Friday.
