Budget/Appropriations

The Pentagon’s 2014 budget hit the defense think-tank world with a big thud Wednesday.

Defense analysts were not impressed by the $526.6 billion 2014 Pentagon budget released Wednesday, which set spending $52 billion above the spending caps set by sequestration.

Their chief complaint was that the Pentagon is unlikely to actually get a 2014 budget near that funding level, unless there’s a drastic change to the budget gridlock that results in a deal to avert sequester.

Congressional Republicans wasted no time slamming President Obama's new defense spending plan, chastising the administration for leaving the Pentagon unprepared to deal with current and future national security threats. 

The Pentagon is slashing its investment in unmanned drones across the board, cutting just over $1 billion from those programs in the department's newest budget proposal. 

The proposals, designed to curb long-term defense costs, are politically unpopular and will have a tough time getting congressional approval.

President Obama’s 2014 budget will include roughly $550 million less in spending for missile defense programs than last year, Bloomberg News reported

The Pentagon’s 2014 budget will request $9.16 billion for missile defense programs, down from $9.71 billion in 2013.

The Obama administration budget will be released Wednesday.

The reported reduction is sure to anger Republicans who say that the president has not devoted attention and resources to missile defense.

The Pentagon is expected on Wednesday to recommend new base closures and hikes in military healthcare fees in President Obama’s budget.

These cost-saving policy suggestions were rejected by Congress in the 2013 budget, but are expected to be included in the new blueprint coming this week.

The House Armed Services Committee already held a hearing last month where lawmakers panned the notion of closing more bases, even before the Pentagon had officially offered them up.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faces an uphill battle in tackling the military’s budget problems.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will make his first appearance on Capitol Hill as Pentagon chief before the House Armed Services Committee next week, one day after the 2014 budget is released.

It had initially appeared that the Senate Armed Services panel would be the first to question Hagel, as an April 11 hearing had been on the committee’s docket for nearly a month.

But the House Armed Services schedule sent out Thursday included a hearing on the same morning with Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

A Senate Armed Services aide said the upper chamber’s hearing with Hagel and Dempsey on the 2014 budget was being rescheduled, and a date was still being worked out with Pentagon officials.

"We need to put everything on the table,” Hagel said in his first major policy address as Pentagon chief.

The biggest defense companies’ share value has soared faster than the stock market since the sequester began.