The president’s budget is incomplete without the inclusion of all the significant departmental budgets, which includes the Department of Defense. The process of accurately specifying the needs of the department within each fiscal year is intense and if poorly done, could lead to significant adverse consequences. This is one possibility why the budget process which is based on approved policy must be adhered to before tabling the entire budget to Congress. The four major stages that take place during defense budgeting are planning, programming, budgeting, and execution process (Schick, 1966). The interrelated phases engage stakeholders at every level to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive process yields the desired output of a realistic and implementable budget.
After the formulation of the budget, Congress presents a legally binding budget which should have a list of activities under programming. The programs listed in a budget must be unique and rid of any replication of details for maximum utilization of financial resources to occur, as recommended by the federal budget process (Lindsay 1988). The policies proposed regarding how various aspects of the defense budget meet the overall objectives of general administration obligations, local and international plans and undertakings. The resource allocation process is at the core of budgeting, which involves the specification of various estimations that should be allocated for each program.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Purchase or armaments, arms control, and maintenance of the assets under the Department of Defense is complicated if the resources needed for the activities are poorly directed. Appropriations are provisions that cause misalignment of priorities. A second major issue is the mismatch of policy and actual activities. Operational chaos is imminent once poorly derived from the budget cycle.
References
Fowler, F. C. (2000). Policy studies for educational leaders: An introduction . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Lindsay, J. M. (1988). Congress and the Defense Budget. The Washington Quarterly , 11 (1), 57-74.
Schick, A. (1966). The road to PPB: The stages of budget reform. Public Administration Review , 243-258.
