Originally published DoD shifts billions from personnel and facilities accounts to fund border mission on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2025/05/dod-shifts-billions-from-personnel-and-facilities-accounts-to-fund-border-mission/ at Federal News Network
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The Pentagon is shifting money away from permanent change of station costs, service members pay and benefits and infrastructure repairs to fund the southern border mission.
These funding shifts are outlined in the Defense Department’s baseline for reprogramming document, which sets the new account-level totals the department will use for the remainder of fiscal 2025.
The plan, submitted to Congress on May 8, largely aligns with guidance from Republican appropriators.
The document outlines a pay raise for junior enlisted service members, expanded funding for the Defense Innovation Unit, increased resources for the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer office and additional investments in unmanned and attritable systems.
It also lays out how the Defense Department will pay for its rapidly expanding role in operational support along the southern border.
The Army, for instance, is moving $336 million from its permanent change of station funds used to relocate service members and their families to cover pay and benefits for troops deployed to support southwest border operations.
More notably, the service is pulling over $1 billion from its historically underfunded facilities, sustainment, restoration, and modernization account used to repair and maintain barracks, buildings, and training facilities to support operational needs at the southern border, including aviation assets, base operations, command units, and deployed ground forces.
Meanwhile, the Navy is reallocating $500,000 from its unemployment compensation fund to pay allowances for active-duty sailors at the border, while the Marine Corps is drawing $900,000 from its incentive and special pay accounts to cover allowances for troops deployed to the southern border.
The Navy’s sustainment, restoration, and modernization account used to pay for facility repairs is losing a little over $20 million to cover operational costs at the southern border. Similarly, the Marine Corps is diverting $20 million from a wide range of training, education, and logistics programs, including its Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.
In addition, the Air Force is shifting nearly $1.7 million from its unemployment benefits account, while the Space Force is reallocating $100,000 from a similar account to support the border mission. The Air Force’s facilities repair and modernization account is losing $142 million to fund southern border operations.
The Pentagon is also realigning existing resources from various accounts and initiatives in support of border operations, including:
- Shifting $3.4 million from funding allocated for the ADVANA data analytics platform and field experimentation for concept of operations (CONOPS) development;
- Moving $10.85 million from C4I/communications services and government travel;
- $631,000 is being realigned from management headquarters support and travel to fund licenses for the Joint Staff CDAO maven smart system and training-related travel for the Joint Staff team;
- $34.4 million is being realigned from the department’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) effort, which is one of DoD’s major modernization priorities.
President Donald Trump has pushed to expand the military’s role in immigration enforcement since taking office. There are currently thousands of troops at the U.S. southern border where the scope of their authority has shifted dramatically. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced the establishment of the “national defense area” along the border, which allows troops to detain migrants. Hegseth said around 2,000 troops patrol that area.
“Think about the border similar to a military installation. If you trespass, you will be charged,” Hegseth said.
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Originally published DoD shifts billions from personnel and facilities accounts to fund border mission on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2025/05/dod-shifts-billions-from-personnel-and-facilities-accounts-to-fund-border-mission/ at Federal News Network
Originally published Federal News Network
