DOD Budget

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), which represented the DOD 6-year plan of estimated expenditures and anticipated appropriation needs, focusing on: (1) whether DOD complied with legislation requiring the annual submission of a FYDP consistent with the President's annual budget submission; and (2) DOD advance procurement spending.

GAO found that: (1) DOD submitted its FYDP at or about the time that the President submitted his budget, as legislation required; (2) FYDP was consistent with the President's budget; (3) DOD obligated about 23 percent of its approximately $3-billion fiscal year 1991 advance procurement authority prior to its FYDP submission; (4) FYDP included $172 billion in planned or anticipated savings and funding reductions; (5) the FYDP estimate for net base closure savings was $5.5 billion higher than an April 1991 estimate of savings; (6) to the extent that DOD did not achieve base closure and other planned savings and reductions, additional offsetting reductions will be required for it to stay within its budget; (7) DOD addressed previous FYDP concerns regarding unrealistic out-year funding projections and inflation rates; and (8) the DOD out-year funding projections reflected agreed-upon spending levels included in the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, and the out-year projection inflation rates were consistent with rates reported by the Congressional Budget Office and other economic forecasters.