• The Pentagon has completed its transfer of $1 billion from an Army personnel fund to building a border wall, DOD Comptroller David Norquist told Congress at a Wednesday hearing, Defense News Pentagon leaders know the move means Congress may strip DOD of its power to reprogram funds in future years, as On Base reported. “There are going to be consequences,” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters, “and I understand the position of the committees. I also have a standing legal order from the commander in chief.”
• House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Calif.) said it is tough to consider the Pentagon’s top-line budget request for fiscal year 2020 when money is being diverted for purposes Congress did not intend. “To look at the Pentagon as sort of a piggy bank slush fund — where you can simply go and grab money for something when you need it — really undermines the credibility of the entire DOD budget,” Smith said at a hearing Wednesday, according to Defense News.
• The Senate Budget Committee passed a five-year budget blueprint Thursday afternoon along party lines. It includes deep cuts to both defense and nondefense spending.
• The White House is holding up talks about raising the statutory spending caps for the next two years, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on the House floor Thursday. House Democrats and Senate Republicans have talked about the importance of a deal addressing the caps, but Hoyer said Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney “wants to use it as leverage,” according to CQ.

 
DOD photo by Lisa Ferdinando