If the Department of Defense (DoD) implemented the plans described in its 2019 Future Years Defense Program, its base budget (which funds normal peacetime activities) would climb from the $617 billion requested for 2019 to $735 billion (in 2019 dollars) in 2033, CBO estimates. Most of that increase would result from increased costs for military personnel and operation and maintenance. Base-budget costs would substantially exceed the share of funding that DoD has previously received under the Budget Control Act’s funding caps in both 2020 and 2021, the final years subject to those caps. Estimated costs based on historical trends instead of some of DoD’s estimates would be about 5 percent higher over the 2019–2033 period.

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