In fiscal year 2015, Pentagon and related spending will total $598 billion, accounting for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending. That's roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.
If legislators funded ICE and CBP at those levels for the current year, combined with funding from the Big Bad Bill, the annual budgets for those agencies would total $64.9 billion (assuming the Big Bad Bill funds are spent equally over the 51 months they’re available). That amounts to a 92 percent increase over the previous highest funding level for the agencies, which was $33.8 billion in FY 2019; a 209 percent increase since FY 2024; and a 441 percent increase since the creation of ICE in FY 2002.
What this country needs is clear: not more money for an immoral, unaccountable war fund, but more money to actually improve lives for people everywhere.
Our latest estimate shows sending the National Guard to U.S. cities has cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars through mid-November.
The climate crisis and militarism are two of the most urgent threats we face, and they are deeply connected. Militarism fuels environmental destruction and accelerates climate change, and the climate crisis intensifies conflict and violence.
