The Government Accountability Office has called on the Department of Defense to update or develop new guidance that reflects the expanded use of presidential drawdown authority, or PDA.
A modified guidance would better represent the expanded PDA, which now provides U.S. military equipment from the DOD inventory beyond the statutory $100 million annual ceiling, GAO said in a report published Thursday. The new guidance will help the government decide “how much or which equipment to provide to foreign partners,” the office added.
DOD Failed to Conduct Budget Impact Assessments
The GAO study found that since 2022, Congress had authorized the president to expand PDA, leading to the drawdown of $31.7 billion of defense articles and services to Ukraine and over $1 billion to Haiti and Taiwan. In exchange, the DOD received $45.8 billion to replace equipment provided to Ukraine. However, GAO noted that while PDA was accelerated to help Ukraine, the Pentagon failed to conduct operations and maintenance, or O&M, budget impact assessments for the packages. The report warned that without proper guidance from DOD, decision-makers would not receive the critical information to review the effect of PDA packages on military services’ O&M budgets.
To address the potential issues, GAO stressed the importance of new guidance on using available funds to replace DOD equipment shipped to partners through PDA. Such guidance would ensure that “U.S. military services do not face greater than anticipated readiness impact,” according to the report.
GAO Exercising Oversight of Ukraine Funding
GAO conducted the study to exercise its oversight of funding provided to Ukraine as mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act and to meet the requirements of the 2024 DOD appropriations bill, which directed the office to review the agency’s execution of PDA and related funding since February 2022.
