Can the Air Force Ditch the Pass-Through Budget?

• Author: Harper, Jon
• Position: BUDGET MATTERS

The Air Force is still trying to free itself of the so-called "pass-through" budget that critics say distorts perceptions of how much money the service is receiving each year. Now, it appears the secretary of defense might be sympathetic to their arguments.

For fiscal year 2021, the Department of the Air Force received $205.5 billion in total funding. Of that, $37.3 billion --or 18 percent--is pass-through, or "non-blue," funding that actually goes to other agencies; hence the term "pass-through."

For 2022, the Biden administration requested $212.8 billion for the Department of the Air Force--which the Space Force falls under--including $39 billion for non-blue programs.

Much of the non-blue money is believed to go toward secretive spy agency capabilities such as space systems used by the National Reconnaissance Office. The Air Force and its supporters are hoping that in the future it will be shifted to other accounts.

"Would I like to see the pass-through... funding somewhere else besides on the Air Force topline? Yes," said Lt. Gen. David Nahom, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs. "When people see the Air Force budget... their perception is we're a little healthier than we actually are.

"As an Air Force, we're going to continue to work in [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] with the other agencies around that are part of the pass-through, as well as with Congress and certainly the appropriators to see if we can display our funds differently in the future," he said during a recent event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Some lawmakers are also banging the drum on the issue.

"Can we do something about a more transparent budgeting system that does not give this view that the Air Force is getting a whole bunch of money that they really do not control?" Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in June.

In a House Armed Services Committee hearing that same month, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said: "It's important that our defense budgets are accurate and transparent. But that's not really the case for the Air Force budget.... When you factor [the pass-through] in, the Air Force budget is...