§222a Unfunded Priorities of the Armed Forces and Combatant Commands: Annual Report

Summary

Each year, within 10 days after the President’s budget is sent to Congress, certain military leaders must send a report to the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the congressional defense committees about their unfunded priorities. The leaders who must report are the Army Chief of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, Air Force Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Space Operations, commanders of the combatant commands, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau (in the role in law). Each report must describe each unfunded priority, say how it would help the national defense and military strategies, state how much money is needed, give account identifiers (like LIN, PE, or SAG where applicable), explain what risk would be reduced, say what need it meets, say why it was not in the President’s budget, show any funding given this year and last year, and say how funding would affect the future-years defense plan. Reports must list priorities in order of urgency and separate covered military construction projects. Not later than 10 days after getting all those reports, the Secretary of Defense, with the Chairman, must send Congress one prioritized list that ranks every unfunded priority across the services by how much risk funding it would reduce. An “unfunded priority” is a program, activity, or mission need not in the President’s budget, needed for an operational plan or validated requirement, and would have been proposed if extra money had been available or if the need emerged after the budget was made. A “covered military construction project” is a project in the future-years defense program that is executable in the year, or one a combatant commander says is an urgent, executable need.