At the same time, Republican lawmakers are set to add more than $100 billion to the proposed Pentagon budget, which would increase military spending to nearly $1 trillion a year.
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Defense Minister Pete Hegseth has excluded 17 categories from the cuts.
Defense Minister Piet Hegseth is rushing to reorganize the military, partly through a reallocation of funds and cuts.
He has banned the Defense Department's efforts to promote diversity and strongly supported President Trump's decision to fire Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the second black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He welcomed the decision by Elon Musk's Office of Government Effectiveness to audit Pentagon programs for what he calls “fraud, waste and abuse.”
Mr. Hegseth also ordered senior military and Defense Department officials to prepare proposals to reallocate $50 billion in this year's budget, or about 8 percent. The Pentagon will go through the process every year for the next five years.
The Pentagon also said it would lay off 5,400 civilian employees on probation, the first of what officials say could be a much larger wave of layoffs at the government's largest agency.
One question Pentagon leaders may face is whether the department can cut or reallocate funds domestically without congressional approval.
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Source: nytimes.com
