The United States of America defense budget: Inertia over strategy

Eric Gomez and Jordan Cohen The FY22 National Defense Authorizat-ion Act (NDAA) recently inched closer to becoming law when the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) voted to send its version to the full House. The HASC version of the bill authorizes $24 billion more than the Biden administration's request and follows the lead of the Senate Armed Services Commit-tee (SASC), which passed a bill authorizing $25 billion more than the administration's request in late July. The HASC and SASC authorization hikes are a product of strategic inertia in Washington that drives defense spending ever upwards without any sense of priority…