CSBA in the News

“We think we know kind of how volatile everything is going to be in the future, and it turns out we have no idea,” said Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Another day, another market-moving tweet from the future President of the United States. This time the target was defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. In the tweet, President-elect Trump called the F-35 program and its cost, “out of control” and pledged to save billions of dollars in military and other spending once he takes office. Shares in Lockheed and other defense contractors promptly dropped. But fixing concerns with the F-35 program is no easy task.

The Senate continues to negotiate a bill funding the federal government into the spring. Congressional Republicans wanted to extend the measure through September, the end of the government’s fiscal year. But the incoming Trump administration pushed for the shorter-term funding so the next president can put his stamp on the government as soon as possible.

“Programs that have had cost problems or performance problems are going to be subject to renegotiation,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The LCS program is “tailor-made for the new administration to revisit.”

A continuing resolution means that current spending levels would continue and that most new projects and programs could not begin. At least seven new weapons programs were facing disruptions because of continuing resolutions, based on a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments study.