Maya McGinnis

The appropriation for the Pentagon is one of the biggest items in the spending bills that fund the federal government.

This year, it comes in at $839 billion.

Maya McGinnis is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

She says the Pentagon spends the most on operations and maintenance of equipment.

The second biggest expensive thing is people, personnel.

U.S.

service members are set to get a 3.8% pay increase.

And then there's the cost of developing and acquiring new weapons, ships, and planes.

Procurement.

There's research and development.

The total Pentagon appropriation increased by less than 1 percent over last year, according to the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget.

Now, that doesn't even keep up with inflation.

But there's a caveat here.

This appropriations bill, it's not the only thing funding the Defense Department.

Rashmi Agarwal is a director at the Government Accountability Office, and she says there's money for the military and President Trump's tax and spending measure, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

It was passed in July of 2025, but they provided about $156 billion in

in additional funding for the department.

Add that in, Agarwal says, and total Pentagon spending for this year is way up, closer to almost a trillion dollars.

That's the largest budget that they've had to date.

Agarwal says the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes money for shipbuilding and weapons.