According to Politico, the temporary budget freezes funding at last year's levels.
Since the United States has been aiding "Israel" in its relentless manic aggression on Gaza after October 7, the Defense Department has dispatched an extra aircraft carrier strike group, air defenses, fighter jets, and hundreds of troops to the Middle East in an effort to prevent the situation from escalating into a regional war. However, according to Politico, the main problem in this framework is congressional dysfunction, which means that the Pentagon is unable to fund the buildup.
The federal government's temporary financing happens to include the military as well, and this freezes expenditure at the same levels as the previous year. Because the personnel transfers in the Middle East were unplanned, the Pentagon was forced to draw funds from existing operations and maintenance accounts, according to DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood. President Joe Biden approved a temporary bill last month to keep the government operational until the end of the fiscal year.
According to Sherwood, this means drills and deployments scheduled for the year will have less funding, and some contractual payments may be delayed.
He detailed that “neither the basic budget proposal nor the fiscal year 2024 supplemental request contained financing for US-Israel missions," adding, "We're taking it out of hide."
The buildup has included prolonging the presence of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group off the coast of "Israel" and has forced military departments and US Central Command to reassess the requirements for current and future operations based on the developing conflict, he added.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Defense stated that it was still working on issuing an estimate of the entire cost of US support for "Israel's" war on Gaza.
Every year, Pentagon officials warn about the impact of temporary budget measures on military preparedness. Operating under a temporary measure restricts the agency from initiating new programs or spending more than the previous year's budget.