Executive Summary

  • The White House's FY2027 budget proposes $1.5 trillion in defense spending — a 43 percent increase over FY2026 levels, the largest single-year defense spending jump in decades.
  • To partially offset the cost, the budget proposes cutting nondefense discretionary spending by $73 billion, or 10 percent, including a 13 percent cut to HUD, a 30 percent cut to the State Department, a 23 percent cut to NASA, and an EPA budget slashed by more than half.
  • OMB Director Russell Vought testifies before the House Budget Committee on April 15. Congress returns from recess today with limited floor time before the fiscal year deadline.
  • The Government Accountability Office, inspector general offices, and the Congressional Budget Office are all operating under reduced capacity — raising the question of who is actually reviewing whether $1.5 trillion is spent accountably.

Congress returns to Washington today. On their desks: a presidential budget request that proposes the largest defense spending increase in modern American history, funded in part by cutting housing assistance, environmental enforcement, and education programs. The question is not whether defense spending should increase. It is whether any institution with the authority to review $1.5 trillion in spending has the capacity to do it.

The Numbers

The FY2027 budget request, released by the White House on April 3, asks Congress for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, according to NPR and CBS News reporting on the proposal. That figure represents a roughly 43 percent increase from FY2026 enacted levels, according to the White House's own topline fact sheet. Pentagon procurement funding would nearly double, according to an analysis by Janes, with Army procurement doubling from $30.71 billion to $60.47 billion and Navy procurement reaching $150 billion.

On the other side of the ledger: nondefense discretionary spending would fall $73 billion, a 10 percent reduction, according to Government Executive. The specific agency cuts are substantial. The Department of Housing and Urban Development would lose $10.7 billion, a 13 percent cut, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center's analysis. The State Department and international programs would be cut by roughly $15.5 billion, a 30 percent reduction, according to CBS News. NASA would lose approximately $5.6 billion, or 23 percent. The Environmental Protection Agency — already operating at reduced capacity after two rounds of DOGE-initiated staff reductions — would be cut by more than half, according to NPR.

The Department of Education budget eliminates 11 programs the administration described as "woke," including the Teacher Quality Partnerships program, according to 19FortyFive. The Job Corps — the nation's largest residential education and job training program for young adults ages 16-24 — would be eliminated entirely.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is a notable exception: it would receive a 9 percent increase, including an additional $800 million for electronic health records modernization, bringing total VA spending to $488.2 billion, according to the department's budget documents.

The Oversight Problem

Here is where the accountability math stops working.

The Government Accountability Office — Congress's primary investigative arm — is operating under a 5 percent budget cut. GAO reported in its own strategic assessment that reduced staffing has already affected its ability to complete congressionally requested audits on schedule. Bastion Daily reported on April 11 that the cut to the agency charged with auditing federal spending arrived at the same time the government proposed the largest increase in federal spending in a generation.

Inspector general offices across the federal government are in worse shape. After the January 2025 mass firing of 17 inspectors general, more than 75 percent of presidentially appointed IG positions remain vacant, according to tracking by Public Citizen. In September 2025, a federal judge ruled the firings were unlawful but declined to reinstate the officials. The positions remain unfilled. Every year, IG offices collectively identify tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse — $70 billion in fiscal year 2024 alone, according to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.

The Congressional Budget Office, which scores budget proposals for fiscal impact, has had its own staffing challenges. The result: the three institutions that exist to tell Congress whether the government's money is being spent responsibly are all operating below capacity at the moment Congress is asked to authorize the largest spending increase in decades.

What $1.5 Trillion Buys — and What It Doesn't

The defense budget's overall theme, according to Pentagon officials quoted by Defense Scoop, is "shifting from a sustainment-based force to a force that is investing in productive expansion of the industrial base and delivery of new innovation." The budget funds critical munitions production deals announced in recent months and nearly doubles procurement accounts.

A new executive order directs the Secretary of Defense to ensure future contracts prohibit stock buybacks and corporate distributions during periods of underperformance or noncompliance, according to Defense Scoop. The provision acknowledges a long-standing criticism: that defense contractors have used government funds to reward shareholders rather than deliver systems on time and on budget. The GAO has documented that continuing resolution delays alone have caused defense contract costs to more than double in some cases, according to a February 2026 GAO report.

But the executive order addresses future contracts. It does not address the existing contract base. And it relies on enforcement by a Pentagon Inspector General office that — like its counterparts across the government — is operating without a Senate-confirmed leader.

The Hearing

OMB Director Russell Vought testifies before the House Budget Committee on Tuesday, April 15, at 10:15 AM in the Cannon House Office Building. It will be the first time Vought faces questioning on a proposal that asks Congress to approve the largest defense budget in American history while simultaneously cutting the agencies that audit how defense dollars are spent.

The hearing will be webcast on the Budget Committee's website.

Members of both parties have signaled concerns. Defense hawks will press on whether $1.5 trillion is sufficient given the current threat environment. Fiscal conservatives will ask whether the domestic cuts are deep enough to offset the increase. And a bipartisan group of oversight advocates — the same coalition that has defended inspector general independence and GAO funding — will ask the question that matters most for accountability: if you cut the auditors and increase the spending, who is watching the money?

The Pattern

This is not the first time a large spending increase has arrived alongside reduced oversight capacity. The post-9/11 defense buildup, which added roughly $2 trillion in discretionary defense spending over a decade, was accompanied by well-documented contractor fraud that the Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated at $31 billion to $60 billion in waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. That commission's 2011 final report specifically cited insufficient oversight staffing as a primary cause.

The conditions for the same dynamic exist now: a massive spending increase, weakened watchdog offices, and a procurement system that the GAO has repeatedly flagged for cost overruns and schedule delays. Whether Congress addresses the oversight gap before authorizing the spending will determine whether this budget achieves its stated goals — or becomes another case study in what happens when spending outpaces accountability.

The House Budget Committee hearing on the FY2027 budget is scheduled for April 15 at 10:15 AM. Bastion Daily will cover the hearing and OMB Director Vought's testimony.