# Defense Budget Transparency Act of 2022

The military budget is enormous and complicated, and this bill tackles a specific accounting problem that's been confusing Congress and the public for years. Here's what's actually happening: the Air Force's budget includes money that it doesn't actually control. These funds get handed off to other military departments or government agencies to spend, but they still show up in the Air Force's budget numbers. It's like your paycheck including money that your employer immediately gives to someone else to manage—it makes your salary look bigger than what you actually control. This bill wants to shine a light on that practice and figure out if it's causing real problems.

The bill requires the Pentagon to hire an independent research organization (not a government agency) to study how this "pass-through budgeting" has affected the Air Force and other military departments over the past twenty years. The researchers will dig into historical budget requests versus what was actually appropriated, analyze whether this practice helps or hurts military planning, and determine if it's misleading Congress and the public about how much money the Air Force actually gets to spend. They'll also figure out whether these hidden funds are actually damaging the Air Force's ability to do its job.

Starting in 2024, the Pentagon will also have to be more transparent in its annual budget requests to Congress. Any money requested for a military department that's subject to pass-through budgeting will now have to be clearly labeled on a separate line item, making it obvious to lawmakers and taxpayers where these funds are. The independent study has to be completed and submitted to Congress by February 15, 2023, and the results will be posted on the Defense Department's public website so anyone can read them. The goal is straightforward: make military budgeting clearer so that Congress can make better decisions about defense spending and the public can actually understand where their tax dollars are going.

Defense Budget Transparency Act of 2022

Defense Budget Transparency Act of 2022 This bill requires research and specified action related to pass-through budgeting for military departments. Pass-through budgeting refers to the practice by which certain funds allocated for a military department are subject to the authority of other departments and agencies of the federal government but are included in the overall budget of the military department despite the department's lack of authority over the funds. Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to seek to enter a contract with an independent research organization to conduct a study on the effects of pass-through budgeting on the Department of the Air Force and other DOD organizations and elements. For each fiscal year beginning with FY2024, the budget justification materials submitted in support of the DOD budget must include separate line items for each military department to clearly identify any amounts requested that are subject to pass-through budgeting.