Budget 2022

President Joe Biden has signed off on a $29 billion spending increase to his requested fiscal year 2022 national “defense” budget, a massive expansion that was approved alongside another $13.6 billion in emergency military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine as Russia’s deadly war on that country continues. The national “defense” total in the 2022 omnibus spending bill is $782 billion, a 3.9 percent increase over the administration’s request for 2022 and a 5.6 percent increase over the 2021 appropriations. This total does not include the assistance for Ukraine, of which $6.5 billion is headed to the Pentagon for funding U.S. troop deployments to eastern Europe and restocking weapons that have been or will be sent to Ukraine. (Arms Control Association–April 2022)

Much of this increase in spending is for procurement. The budget’s military procurement allotment exceeds the Pentagon’s budget request by about $12 billion. The budget increase includes money for 20 more C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, made by Lockheed Martin, and 12 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the Navy, keeping Boeing’s production line going. 

As companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing,  and General Dynamics continue to put former Department of Defense officials on their payrolls and continue to spend more than $100 million each year on lobbying, these billions spent on procurement primarily benefit the large military contractors.