As Katherine Blakeley of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments explains in an analysis of the administration’s defense budget request, the legislative calendar that awaits lawmakers when they return from August recess provides little room to negotiate a compromise. Blakeley, and others, have noted that the most likely scenario a continuing resolution for the first months of fiscal 2018. And this is all taking place despite the president’s party holding majorities in both houses of Congress. It is also occurring as the United States continues to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ramps up counterterrorism operations elsewhere, and as the president threatens North Korea and, more recently, Venezuela.

The Army is the most sensitive to changes in the costs of military personnel because they account for more of its budget than other services, according to a new analysis from the think tank by Katherine Blakeley.

The legislative calendar is running short and remains packed with difficult political issues such appropriations legislation, a debt ceiling increase, tax reform, and potentially another run at Obamacare repeal. That makes a continuing resolution covering several months likely, according to an analysis this month by Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“Although the exact figures vary, … [key congressional committees] have all marked to a total national defense topline that is about $30 billion more than the Trump administration’s PB 2018 request,” Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said in a recent policy paper…

"The wide gulfs between the political parties and between the defense hawks and the fiscal hawks will not be closed soon," wrote Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Substantially increasing defense spending for fiscal 2018 could require a "eye-popping increase" in funding for Overseas Contingency Operations, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments reported today in a new analysis.