DoD obligates $142B from reconciliation bill before deadline, leaving billions subject to cuts

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 04: U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has obligated about $142 billion of the reconciliation funding allotted to it in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” leaving about 7 percent of the total pot susceptible to across-the-board spending cuts, a source familiar with the matter told Breaking Defense.

Another source, a defense official, confirmed that only 93 percent of the total amount had been obligated ahead of fiscal 2027, which started today, but could not provide further details about what funding lines remained unspent.

The party-line reconciliation bill passed by Republicans last year included about $152 billion in defense spending, with billions for military modernization priorities including Golden Dome , two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers , munitions and fighter jets. The funding is available for several years, with the caveat that any funding not obligated before Oct. 1 would suffer an 8.3 percent cut known as sequestration.

That unspent 7 percent of funds — around $10 billion, according to Breaking Defense’s estimates — is now subject to that cut. In other words, roughly $830 million of defense buying power has simply vanished and cannot be used.

Reconciliation funding was initially slow to get out the door — much to the consternation of Congress, which pushed Pentagon officials to award contracts before the deadline. In late April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate panel that only $26 billion had been placed on contract.

By June, a senior department official told Breaking Defense that the Pentagon was moving ahead and had issued guidance to its program offices on how to spend the money as quickly as possible before the Oct. 1 deadline. “Our strategy focuses on maximizing the utility of every dollar in a timely, yet responsible, manner,” the official said at the time.

Then in late July, Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that roughly $75 billion remained unobligated, but projected that 95 percent would be under contract by the end of the fiscal year to pay for a myriad of defense investments such as the Golden Dome air defense plan.

Three exercises that proved a new approach to C-UAS

Architecture that linked sensors, C2, RF effects, and lasers into a distributed c-UAS kill chain.

It’s unclear whether the unspent funds will draw the ire of lawmakers.

When asked by Breaking Defense on Wednesday afternoon whether all of the defense reconciliation funds were going to be spent by the close of FY26, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker said, “We’re very pleased with the amount that’s been executed,” before riding away on the Senate subway.

But Elaine McCusker, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and previously the Pentagon’s acting comptroller, has said that the department needs every dollar it can get to “fix long-term problems.”

“Even a loss of 8.3 percent during roll-over could have consequences,” she told Breaking Defense in June.

华盛顿特区——2025年7月4日：美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在共和党议员的陪同下，于白宫南草坪举行的独立日军属野餐会上签署了《一项伟大而美好的法案》（One, Big Beautiful Bill Act）。（图片来源：Samuel Corum/Getty Images）

华盛顿——据知情人士向《防务新闻》透露，五角大楼已拨付了去年“一项宏伟法案”中分配给它的约 1420 亿美元的预算协调资金，这意味着总额中约有 7% 的资金可能面临全面削减开支的风险。

另一位消息人士，一位国防官员证实，在今天开始的 2027 财年之前，只有 93% 的总金额被拨付，但他无法提供有关哪些资金项目尚未支出的更多细节。

去年共和党通过的党派预算协调法案包含了约1520亿美元的国防开支，其中数十亿美元用于军事现代化优先事项，包括金穹顶（Golden Dome）项目、两艘阿利·伯克级驱逐舰、弹药和战斗机。这笔资金可使用数年，但前提是任何在10月1日之前未拨付的资金都将面临8.3%的削减，即所谓的“自动减支”。

据《防务新闻》估计，这笔未使用的7%资金——约100亿美元——现在也面临削减。换句话说，大约8.3亿美元的国防采购能力就此消失，无法再使用。

预算协调拨款最初进展缓慢，这令国会十分不满，国会敦促五角大楼官员在截止日期前完成合同授予。4月下旬，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯向参议院一个小组表示，仅有260亿美元的合同已签订。

6月份，一位国防部高级官员告诉《防务新闻》，五角大楼正在推进相关工作，并已向各项目办公室发布指导意见，要求他们在10月1日截止日期前尽快用完这笔资金。这位官员当时表示：“我们的策略重点在于以及时且负责任的方式，最大限度地利用每一分钱。”

7 月下旬，赫格塞斯告诉参议院拨款委员会，大约还有 750 亿美元尚未拨付，但他预计到本财年结束时，其中 95% 将签订合同，用于支付各种国防投资，例如金穹防空计划。

三个演习证明了反无人机系统（C-UAS）的一种新方法。

将传感器、C2、射频效应和激光连接成分布式 c-UAS 杀伤链的架构。

目前尚不清楚未使用的资金是否会引起立法者的不满。

周三下午，当《防务新闻》询问参议院军事委员会主席罗杰·威克尔，所有国防预算协调资金是否会在 2026 财年结束前用完时，威克尔说：“我们对已执行的金额非常满意。”说完，他便乘参议院地铁离开了。

但美国企业研究所高级研究员、前五角大楼代理审计长伊莱恩·麦卡斯克表示，国防部需要尽可能多的资金来“解决长期问题”。

“即使在滚动期间损失 8.3%，也可能产生后果，”她在 6 月份告诉 Breaking Defense。