Congress passed a $700 billion defense policy bill. The Pentagon may never get all of it

The $700 billion defense policy bill passed by Congress this month, which President Trump touted as an historic hike, hands the military a lengthy shopping list of aircraft, ships, and troops.

But the Pentagon is not calling contractors and recruiters quite yet. The Defense Department has not been given the money to pay for the purchases, and it may not even get all the money it needs to pay for the new hardware and personnel.

Congress is still weeks or months away from a deal to fund the National Defense Authorization Act and raise a 2018 defense spending cap that threatens to cut more than $80 billion from the legislation, said Todd Harrison, the director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“I think the odds are good that whatever budget deal they get to change the budget caps is not going to go all the way up to the level that is implied by the NDAA,” Harrison said.

Defense hawks led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, fought for months to get the NDAA and its $634 billion in base defense spending through Congress. Another $66 billion in the NDAA for overseas military operations is exempt from the 2018 spending cap.