Total military and national security spending in the U.S. federal budget.
Published by Jess Apr 20th, 2008 at 00:21 in death and taxes, economics, military. one response.
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Every year people ask me, “Just what is all this military/national security spending you list?”. Well I have decided to type it all out once and for all. What qualifies spending as ‘military’ or ‘national security’ is subjective. There is strict interpretations which only includes funding with in the Department of Defense, and there are loose interpretation which include portions of the national debt and subsequent interest payments as a direct result of military spending. I try to strike a balance between loose and strict. Below is a table which includes all the military and national security spending that makes up the $799 Billion listed on the Death and Taxes poster for 2009.
The government has an official categorization of defense spending. It’s function 050.
“National Defense” (”Function 050″): Federal budget category that consists of the Department of Defense budget (”Function 051″); Department of Energy programs devoted to national defense, such as naval ship reactors and nuclear weapons (”Function 053″); and other defense-related activities including the Selective Service System and civil defense programs administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (”Function 054″).
But protecting our national borders and interests is not solely contained within function 050 spending. The table below details all the military and national security spending that make up the $799 Billion that I use for the poster. Each function and department is color coded.
Total Military and National Security Spending in the 2009 Federal Budget
Category |
Department | Program | Budget Authority ($Billion) | Description/Justification |
| Function 051 | Defense | Department of Defense | 515.440 | Where the bulk of the military spending takes place |
| Function 053 | Energy | National Nuclear Security Administration | 9.097 | Maintains nuclear weapon stockpile and maintains application of nuclear energy. i.e. Naval reactors. |
| Function 053 | Energy | Environmental and Other Defense Activities | 6.857 | Disposal of old nuclear weapons and cleanup of military test sites. |
| Function 053 | Energy | Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability | .008 | ??? |
| Function 053 | Labor | Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Fund | .948 | Compensation to employees who were injured to radiation exposure at a nuclear testing site. |
| Function 053 | Labor | Administrative Expenses, Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Fund | .108 | Administration for the above. ^ |
| Function 053 | Corps of Engineers | Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program | .130 | more nuclear testing site cleanup. |
| Function 053 | Independent Agency | Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board | .025 | Congressional oversight of the nuclear weapons complexes |
| Function 054 | Commerce | Bureau of Industry and Security Operations and Administration | .015 | Ensures an effective export control and treaty compliance. |
| Function 054 | Homeland Security | United States Coast Guard | .340 | Military functions of the Coast Guard |
| Function 054 | Homeland Security | Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements | .003 | ??? |
| Function 054 | Homeland Security | National Protection and Programs Directorate | .841 | For Infrastructure Protection and Information Security. |
| Function 054 | Homeland Security | Federal Emergency Management Agency | .294 | For Operations, Management and Administration |
| Function 054 | Justice | Salaries and Expenses | .020 | ??? |
| Function 054 | Justice | Payment to Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund | .031 | Compensation to people exposed to radiation during above ground nuclear tests from 1945 through 1962. |
| Function 054 | Justice | Federal Bureau of Investigation | 2.793 | For Counter-terrorism and salaries and expenses related there to. |
| Function 054 | Transportation | Maritime Security Program | .174 | Privately owned fleet that can support a Department of Defense sustainment in a contingency. |
| Function 054 | Corps of Engineers | Office of Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) | .006 | Arlington National Cemetery and the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s home National Cemetery administrative functions. |
| Function 054 | Civil Defense | Selective Service System | .022 | Administers military conscription. |
| Function 054 | National Science Foundation | Research and Related Activities | .067 | ??? |
| Function 054 | Central Intelligence Agency | Payment to Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System Fund | .279 | CIA retirement payments. |
| Function 054 | Central Intelligence Agency | Intelligence Community Management Account | .665 | Umbrella organization for oversight of the Intelligence community. |
| Function 054 | Independent Agency | Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board | .002 | Advises the President to ensure that concerns with respect to privacy and civil liberties are appropriately considered in the implementation of all laws, regulations, and executive branch policies related to efforts to protect the Nation against terrorism. |
| Total Function 050 | 538.165 | |||
| Function 153 | State | International Peacekeeping Activities | 1.497 | Promotes increased involvement of regional organizations in conflict resolution and help leverage support for multinational efforts where no formal cost sharing mechanism is available. |
| Function 151 | State | Counter-Narcotics Assistance | 1.609 | Provides funds for military equipment and training to overseas police and armed forces to combat the production and trafficking of illegal drugs |
| Function 152 | State | Economic Support Fund | 3.154 | Promote economic and political stability in strategically important regions where the United States has special security interests, these grants allow the recipient government to free up its own money for military programs. |
| Function 152 | State | Foreign Military Financing | 4.812 | Congressionally appropriated grants given to foreign governments to finance the purchase of American-made weapons, services and training. |
| Function 152 | State | International Military Education and Training | .090 | Military Education and Training grants to allied nations. |
| Function 152 | State | Peacekeeping Operations | .247 | Voluntary support for international peacekeeping activities. |
| Function 152 | State | Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining, and Related Programs | .499 | Funds go to nuclear non-proliferation programs, anti-terrorism aid, demining activities, and small arms destruction programs. |
| Total function 150 | 11.909 | |||
| Function 751 | Homeland Security | Immigration and Customs Enforcement | 5.364 | The mission of ICE is to protect America and uphold public safety by targeting the people, money and materials that support terrorist and criminal activities. Established with the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the ICE is the largest investigative arm of DHS, and the second largest contributor to the nation €™s Joint Terrorism Task Force. |
| Function 751 | Homeland Security | Customs and Border Protection | 9.494 | While one role of Customs is to regulate international trade and collect import duties, its other primary mission is consists of preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States. |
| Function 751 | Homeland Security | Domestic Nuclear Detection Office | .596 | Improves the Nation €™s capability to detect and report unauthorized attempts to import, possess, store, develop, or transport nuclear or radiological material for use against the Nation |
| Total Function 751 | 15.454 | |||
| Function 703 | Veterans Affairs | Entire department not including benefits which is mandatory. | 44.767 | The government does not consider supporting our veterans military spending. However I make no distinction between the funding of current troops and the funding of past troops. Clearly the size of the active military has a direct relationship to the size of the veteran population and subsequent funding. |
| Function 051 (supplemental) | Defense | Global War on Terror | 189.316 | The administration uses $70 billion for this figure in 2009 which is just a placeholder pending further enactment of the 2008 request. The real estimated total is $180-200 billion. $189.316 billion was used at it is the 2008 estimated total. |
| Total Other | 234.083 | |||
| Total Military/National Security Spending | 799.611 |
