Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee have raised “significant concern” with the Pentagon’s move to classify reconciliation spending plans, urging the department to provide more public details on how the $150 billion is being allocated.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, led by Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the lawmakers say the classification decision “risks further turning reconciliation funding into a slush fund.”
“Classifying the spending plan undermines congressional oversight and accountability. Even at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense appropriation spend plans were not fully classified,” Merkley and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) write in the letter.
“Congress cannot forfeit its constitutional role in overseeing the defense budget. Transparency is not optional; it is the foundation of accountability. We strongly urge the department to reconsider this approach and provide Congress with comprehensive, appropriately marked spending plans without delay,” the lawmakers added.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed last July allocated $150 billion for defense to be spent over four years, with the Donald Trump administration apportioning $113 billion for fiscal year 2026 to achieve a $1 trillion defense topline when combined with the base defense budget request.
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees were responsible for crafting the defense portions of the reconciliation bill, to include outlining $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system and $33.7 billion for shipbuilding, while the final allocation of those funds is ultimately allocated by the Trump administration and Pentagon.
The Senate Budget Democrats’ letter notes that a provision was scratched from the final version of the reconciliation bill that would have required Hegseth to submit a detailed spending plan for the funds and to provide an annual expenditure report to Congress.