In the President's 2026 budget request, total military compensation is $718 billion. Of that total, $277 billion is for the Department of Defense, and $441 billion is for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Compensation for military personnel is found in both the defense and nondefense parts of the federal budget. Defense funding, in the Department of Defense's (DoD's) budget, is mostly for current military personnel. Nondefense funding in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is mostly for former military personnel.
Since 2000, the total budget for military compensation has risen steadily, even though the number of military personnel and veterans has declined. Spending by VA has accounted for most of that increase, rising from a small fraction of total spending on military personnel to about 61 percent in the President's 2026 budget request. In that budget request, total military compensation is $718 billion. (Of that total, $277 billion is for DoD, and $441 billion is for VA.)
