President Donald Trump has said he projects the defense budget to be $700B for fiscal 2020, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday.
The figure reflects a drop of more than 2 percent from the $716B National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019 that Trump signed in August.
The president said the increase in the defense budget for FY 2019 seeks to support the procurement of new submarines and ships as part of the country’s military rebuilding efforts.
He also signed in September an appropriations package that would allocate $674B in FY 2019 funds for the Pentagon.
Trump on Wednesday directed his Cabinet secretaries to implement a 5 percent cut in their proposed budgets for the next fiscal year.
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