S. 2987 would authorize appropriations totaling an estimated $709 billion for the military functions of the Department of Defense (DoD), for certain activities of the Department of Energy, and for other purposes. In addition, the bill would prescribe personnel strengths for each active-duty and selected-reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces. CBO estimates that appropriation of the authorized and necessary amounts would result in outlays of $686 billion over the 2019-2023 period.
The bill also contains provisions that would affect the costs of defense programs funded through discretionary appropriations in 2020 and future years. Those provisions mainly would affect force structure, compensation and benefits, the military health system, and various procurement programs. CBO has analyzed the costs of a select number of those provisions and estimates that they would, on a net basis, increase the cost of those programs compared to current law by about $22 billion over the 2020-2023 period. The net costs of those provisions in 2020 and beyond are not included in the total amount of outlays mentioned above because funding for those activities would be covered by specific authorizations in future years.