Is Congress Losing Its Grip On The Nation’s Purse Strings?

BusinessAerospace & DefenseIs Congress Losing Its Grip On The Nation’s Purse Strings?ByJulia Gledhill,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Julia Gledhill is a research analyst at The Stimson Center.Follow AuthorJun 05, 2026, 06:00am EDT House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers listens to military leaders testify in April about the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2027 budget request.Getty ImagesHouse Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) has declared that a trillion-dollar-plus Pentagon budget is the “new normal.” But so far, lawmakers have had to sacrifice a core element of their constitutional authority: the ability to direct how federal dollars are spent. Last year, Congress took the unprecedented step of approving a defense budget exceeding $1 trillion through the highly partisan budget reconciliation process rather than regular order appropriations, which require bipartisan consensus. In doing so, lawmakers dramatically expanded the Pentagon’s ability to move money from one account to another with minimal congressional guidance and oversight. This represents a significant concession of lawmakers’ constitutional power of the purse. This dynamic is likely to continue in the coming fiscal year. To fulfill President Trump’s $1.5 trillion national security budget request, Congress will need to approve $1.1 trillion for the Pentagon’s base budget, $41.6 billion for nuclear weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, $11.9 billion for other defense activities, and an additional $350 billion for the Pentagon through reconciliation. But reconciliation isn’t the only instrument shifting control away from Congress and toward the executive branch. The annual defense policy billThe House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense policy bill, contains several provisions that would transfer further authority from Congress to the Pentagon. Specifically,...