Intelligence spending hits record $109B, still short of Trump's ask

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(The Center Square) – Spending on the two U.S. intelligence budgets hit a record $109 billion in fiscal 2026 but still landed $6.5 billion below what the Trump administration requested, the largest shortfall in 14 years of figures published by ODNI.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Congress appropriated $78.1 billion to the National Intelligence Program for fiscal 2026. The Department of War put the Military Intelligence Program at $30.9 billion. Both figures, released Oct. 30, are the highest in their agencies' published series, according to a review by The Center Square.

ODNI figures show the combined request was $115.5 billion, and that Congress appropriated more for intelligence than the White House sought in each of the three years from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2024, exceeding the request by $5.9 billion in fiscal 2023. Fiscal 2025 came in $500 million short. Fiscal 2026 came in $6.5 billion short.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Military Intelligence Program funds defense intelligence supporting tactical military operations, covering the service intelligence components and agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, while the National Intelligence Program covers intelligence oriented toward policymakers. Both agencies said no other figures or program details will be released.

Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute who previously served as a senior Pentagon policy adviser and spent six years as a Senate national security staffer, said that leaves most of Congress voting on money it cannot see.

"Only members on the intelligence committee and the armed services committees in both chambers actually have an understanding of what's being covered, and that's obviously a very small fraction of members," she told The Center Square. "Yet all members are expected to vote on these funding levels."

The Department of War is not required by law to release the military intelligence figure and has done so voluntarily since 2007, according to the Congressional Research Service. Thompson said publishing a top line with nothing beneath it invites questions the department should then be prepared to answer, including from members of the committees.

The Department of War said in April it is requesting $50 billion for the Military Intelligence Program in fiscal 2027, 62% above the fiscal 2026 enacted level and the largest single-year increase in the department's published series. ODNI put the fiscal 2027 national intelligence request at $81.9 billion in April.

The Department of War did not respond by deadline to questions about whether the $30.9 billion includes supplemental funding, whether it is comparable to prior years, and what drives the $50 billion fiscal 2027 request.

The department said the fiscal 2026 program is aligned to the National Defense Strategy. Thompson said she would want to know how.

"This national defense strategy's priorities look much different than the previous two administrations," she said, and members should be asking what changed to bring it into alignment.