David Rader and Adam Papa
The Department of Defense budget is growing, and the DOD is spending more money in novel industries and nontraditional areas than ever before. To ensure the DOD spends smartly in this new environment, Congress should authorize a chief economist to keep the DOD thinking about the dollars and cents of it all.
Since 2000, the DOD has spent more than $15 trillion dollars and has an anticipated budget of more than $900 billion for fiscal 2025. The DOD is the world’s single-biggest purchaser of bulk fuel, the largest employer on the planet with 3.4 million combined civilian and service members, and one of the largest health care providers in the world. The institution manages $3.8 trillion in assets that includes a 26 million-acre real estate portfolio and over 4,800 sites that can be found in every U.S. state and over 160 countries. The DOD’s budget ranks it as the 20th largest GDP in the world, ahead of countries like Switzerland, Poland and Taiwan.
Despite the immense scale of economic complexity managed and notable efforts in recent years to become a more versatile and active market participant, there is still a critical component missing to help this financial colossus better understand and improve its business dealings in an era of great power competition: a chief economist.
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