Discretionary Spending
Function 050 - National Defense
Reduce Funding for Naval Ship Construction to Historical Levels
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
| Billions of Dollars | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | 2021– 2025 |
2021– 2030 |
|
| Change in Planned Defense Spending | |||||||||||||
| Budget authority | 0 | -4.8 | -7.2 | -9.1 | -10.1 | -9.7 | -9.4 | -9.0 | -8.6 | -8.2 | -31.2 | -76.1 | |
| Outlays | 0 | -0.2 | -1.3 | -3.0 | -5.0 | -6.8 | -8.0 | -8.7 | -8.9 | -8.9 | -9.5 | -50.8 | |
This option would take effect in October 2021.
Estimates of savings displayed in the table are based on cost estimates from the Navy.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the annual cost of the Navy’s fiscal year 2020 shipbuilding plan, which covers fiscal years 2020 to 2049, is almost double in real (inflation-adjusted) terms the average annual amount the Navy has spent on shipbuilding over the past 30 years.
This option would decrease annual budget authority for naval ship construction to its 30-year average in real terms.