Secretary of Defense and 2025 Wash100 winner Pete Hegseth has ordered Department of Defense officials to conduct a review and find approximately $50 billion in the Biden administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget that could be shifted toward President Trump’s national defense priorities, including the Iron Dome for America and border security, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
“The Department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the Department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at 8% of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” Robert Salesses, who performs the duties of deputy secretary of defense, said in a statement published Wednesday.
Priority Categories That May Be Excluded
Following the release of the DOD official’s statement, Breaking Defense obtained a list of the 17 priority categories or “offsets” that may not be included by military services and component agencies in their 8 percent spending reduction recommendations or should be financially protected in the next fiscal year.
These are:
- Audit
- Collaborative combat aircraft
- Combatant command support agency funding
- Combating transnational criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere
- Core readiness, including full DRT funding
- Counter-small UAS initiatives
- Executable surface ships
- Executable U.S. Indo-Pacific Command MILCON
- Homeland missile defense
- Medical private-sector care
- Munitions
- Munitions and energetics organic industrial bases
- Nuclear modernization
- One-way attack/autonomous systems
- Priority critical cybersecurity
- Southwest border activities
- Virginia-class submarines
