Officials are very close to setting a final maximum figure, which the White House will include as part of its fiscal year 2024 general budget request to be released on March 9, said Defense Department Chief Financial Officer Mike McCord. .

“I expect it to be a higher number than what Congress provided last year,” McCord said.

Although he declined to give details about the proposal as it is still in the process of being changed, the official, quoted by Politico, as saying the Pentagon will invest in munitions to replenish US stockpiles and maintain supplies of war materiel to Ukraine.

Last December, lawmakers allocated $858 billion dollars in national defense funds, $45 billion more than what Biden was seeking, the outlet recalled.

That included $817 billion for the Pentagon and billions more for nuclear weapons development through the Department of Energy and other national security programs.

At the time, it was the highest the United States had ever spent on the Defense Department, attesting to Washington’s determination to supply Kiev with weapons, despite ongoing warnings that this will prolong the conflict with Russia and inflict more harm to the civilian population.

However, Politico warned, the president’s prospects for the Pentagon budget are increasingly uncertain now that Republicans dominate the lower house of Congress, and where a partisan fight over the nation’s debt limit is currently brewing.

With just four months to go before the Treasury Department runs out of ways to avoid a default, conservative lawmakers are demanding deep cuts, including defense, in exchange for a compromise on the issue.

While Republicans have yet to come together on a specific set of conditions for raising the debt limit, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled his support for limiting spending to fiscal year 2022 levels.

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