Washington – Defense Minister Pete Heget has directed military services to identify $ 50 billion programs that can be cut next year to redirect these savings to fund President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Hegt is committed to redirecting the Pentagon costs for more supportive support of the fighters. In a statement at the end of Wednesday, Robert Sales, who fulfills the duties of the Deputy Minister of Defense, said “the time for preparation is completed” and “excessive bureaucracy” and programs aimed at climate change or “other awakening programs”, such as Diversity, justice and initiatives will be directed.
“In order to achieve our term from President Trump, we are guided by its priorities, including providing our borders, building an iron dome for America and terminating radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferences,” Salesses said.
The iron dome is envisaged as an extensive, multilayered air defense system for the United States, which Trump said should include the ability to remove incoming missiles from space.
About $ 50 billion would represent about 8% of the military budget. It was not clear immediately which parts of the Pentagon costs for programs for variety and shares or its costs to deal with climate change – such as buying alternative aircraft fuels or converting bases more resistant to the effects of extreme weather, such as hurricane for 2018 D. This causes significant damage to the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida – will be directed or can add up to 50 billion dollars savings.
The cost of reducing costs is coming as the military is quickly trying to build their fiscal request in 2026, a congress process, which often begins late during transitions between presidential administrations. Heget asked the Pentagon to find compensation – programs that could be reduced to reach the costs elsewhere – for the fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1st.
The abbreviations would be as drastic as the one -year -old ordered savings in the sequestion in 2013, a law adopted by Congress, which was intended to force the legislative branch to reach an agreement to reduce budget deficit and instead force services to reduce 56 billion dollars in a few months.
Due to the way the military budget was structured, long -term public procurement programs were protected at the time, as well as most rights such as military retirement and healthcare.
At that time, the accounts, which were easier to reduce, were found in operations, maintenance and staff. The services have lost officers who are not trained high-level trained employees and reduced training as flights. The military training accidents quickly climbed.
In the years after the sector, Congress and Services have directed additional protection to the cost of operations and maintenance.
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