Global military construction spending in 2014 exceeded several entire civilian agencies’ budgets

Evidence

Encouragingly, cuts to the Pentagon budget brought about by Congress’s sequestration process have reined in the out-of-control nature of recent MilCon spending. For fiscal year 2014, overseas MilCon expenditures amounted to around 1.5 billion, with another 2.8 billion at unspecified worldwide locations. Globally, the total reached $10.2 billion. While this pales compared to funding for military pay, weapons procurement, and research and development, more money went to military construction around the world in 2014 than to each of the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, and the Corporation for National and Community Service. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 814

Categorization

• XREF: The comparison of military construction to whole civilian agencies echoes the book’s running theme of militarized resource priorities.