The requested budget is a 4% boost over the $782 billion fiscal 2022 defense budget signed into law this month. It includes $773 billion for the U.S. Department of Defense, with the remainder mostly for nuclear weapons programs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
"I'm calling for one of the largest investments in our national security in history, with the funds needed to ensure that our military remains the best-prepared, best-trained, best-equipped military in the world," President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Several issues had helped to shape the DOD budget and drive its increase, according to the White House, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine — although China remains the DOD's "pacing challenge" — and ongoing supply chain constraints.
Inflation, at its highest point in decades, was also a factor, although the White House said it expects inflation to "gradually moderate" throughout 2022 and beyond. The consumer price index, a common measure of inflation, recently hit 7.9% for the year ending in February, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Reflecting those issues, the White House said its requested budget would bolster funding for NATO and Ukraine, including $6.9 billion for related assistance programs and the European Deterrence Initiative, which was launched in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea region.
The administration also said it wanted to invest in domestic production of key technologies like microelectronics and casting and forging, as well as supporting research and development programs for innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.
And it proposed a 4.6% pay raise for service members and DOD civilians, which it said was "the largest [annual boost] in a generation."
Reflecting broader priorities of the administration, the defense budget also boosts investments in climate resilience and energy efficiency programs, in preparedness programs for future pandemics, and in small business contracting, particularly for small disadvantaged businesses, the White House said.
DOD officials laid out some of the department's more specific funding priorities in statements and press conferences Monday, saying it had, for example, requested more than $130.1 billion for DOD research and development funding. That is an "all-time high" that is 9.5% more than the enacted R&D budget for 2022, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
That boost was "because we understand the need to sharpen our readiness in advanced technology, cyber, space and artificial intelligence," he said.
There is also $34.4 billion requested for nuclear modernization programs, including all three arms of the "nuclear triad" — submarines, bombers and long-range missiles — and $11 billion for 61 F-35 fighter jets, officials said.
And the budget request includes $1 billion to address the impact of a fuel leak from the Red Hill storage facility in Hawaii, which Austin recently pledged to close after the leak contaminated the local water supply.
Despite adding tens of billions of dollars to the already boosted 2022 budget, which ultimately came in significantly higher than the White House had requested amid Russia's Ukraine invasion, the 2023 request drew criticism from Republicans.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, argued in a statement Monday that the budget request was "wholly inadequate … [failing] to account for the record high inflation that is wreaking havoc on our nation."
He and other Republicans on the Armed Services committees had previously argued for a defense budget boost of 5% on top of inflation, citing "exponential" growth in national security threats over the past year due to issues such as Chinese military modernization and the alleged risks of terrorist groups regaining a foothold in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, as well as concerns about the Russian war in Ukraine.
Fiscal 2023 starts on Oct. 1, and it is up to Congress to decide the final federal budget and appropriate funds for defense.
Democrats in the party's progressive wing, such as Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif., are also likely to be dissatisfied with the proposed budget, having recently argued in a Friday letter to Biden that the defense budget had already increased substantially in fiscal 2022 and that continually boosting the budget leads to "mission creep [that] is dangerous to peace-seeking efforts … [and] will continue to starve our domestic priorities of needed funding."
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
Update: This story has been updated to include additional budget details.
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