As reported by the Senate Committee on Armed Services on June 2, 2014
S. 2410 would authorize appropriations totaling an estimated $573 billion for fiscal year 2015 for the military functions of the Department of Defense (DoD), for certain activities of the Department of Energy (DOE), and for other purposes. Of that amount, CBO estimates that $59 billion would be for the cost of overseas contingency operations, primarily related to Afghanistan. In addition, S. 2410 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 amounts would result in outlays of $560 billion over the 2015-2019 period.
The bill also contains provisions that would affect the costs of defense programs funded through discretionary appropriations in 2016 and future years. Those implicit authorizations would modify force structure, DoD compensation and benefits, and other programs and activities. CBO has analyzed the budgetary effects of a select number of those provisions and estimates that they would, on a net basis, lower the amount of appropriations needed to implement defense programs relative to current law by about $40 billion over the 2016-2019 period. The effects of those reductions are not included in the totals in the previous paragraph because funding for those activities would be covered by specific authorizations enacted in future years.
In addition, S. 2410 contains provisions that would affect direct spending. CBO estimates that, on net, those provisions would decrease direct spending by $1.1 billion over the 2015-2019 period and by $4.5 billion over the 2015-2024 period. Because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
S. 2410 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
