Tax Law Boosts Trump’s Military Plans But Funding Work Remains

The US military and the Department of Homeland Security were two of the biggest winners of the recently enacted Republican tax law, which provided more than $300 billion to carry out President Donald Trump’s top initiatives.

Now, it’s up to lawmakers to help steer the money at the relevant federal agencies for priorities including border wall funding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity, and military shipbuilding. They must do this while also finding a way, amid partisan tensions, to strike a separate broader, bipartisan government-funding deal for the next fiscal year.

The GOP tax bill provided hundreds of billions of dollars to agencies upfront, immediately bolstering their budgets. But it will take several years for the money to be doled out. The law (Public Law 119-21) authorizes agencies to use the money over four years, though Sept. 30, 2029. And the actual expenditure of funds will likely stretch well into the 2030s, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of government outlays.

The law included $156 billion in defense funds. It also provided $132.6 billion from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and $45.7 billion from the Judiciary Committee — panels that share responsibility for border and immigration policies.

Republicans provided the funds through authorizing committees, which are allowed to pass bills through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. That tactic allowed Republicans to avoid negotiating with Democrats in the Senate, but it also shifted power away from appropriators.

“It’s the first time we’ve been authorizers and appropriators,” House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said. He joked, “I think we should do this every year.”

Rogers and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), will send Defense Department officials letters with more detailed information about lawmakers’ priorities for the defense funds, Rogers said. Typically, the funds are provided in detailed appropriations bills with accompanying tables and directives, totaling hundreds of pages. By comparison, the section of the enacted tax law that provided Defense Department funds ran 36 pages.

The law did provide broad directives to Trump administration officials on how to spend the money. The measure called for $28.2 billion for military shipbuilding, $24.6 billion for munitions and industrial base development, and $23.7 billion for air and missile defense, among other large pots of money.

ICE would receive nearly $75 billion to expand its detention capacity, as well as for personnel and infrastructure costs. The law also would provide $46.6 billion for border infrastructure and barriers.

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Homeland Security grants to state and local governments — including for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympics — total nearly $12.6 billion in the law.

Other agencies also got billions in funding, outside the usual appropriations process. The law provided $24.6 billion for the Coast Guard, $12.5 billion for Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control improvements, $10 billion for NASA, $5 billion for the Bureau of Prisons, and $1.2 billion for the Secret Service.

The bill, however, does not avert the prospect of a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Lawmakers will still need to strike a bipartisan funding agreement to keep agencies running, requiring 60 votes to end debate in the Senate. Partisan tensions on Capitol Hill have been running high as Trump has aggressively pushed through his agenda. The GOP tax bill, which was enacted without any Democratic support, has only heightened the tension, along with a GOP plan to rescind old foreign-aid and public broadcasting funds.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and a senior appropriator, said Democrats are concerned with “the way this administration has disregarded law and congressional intent.” He said top Defense Department officials have promised they’ll follow guidance from the Armed Services Committee, though he said it “remains to be seen” whether they’ll stick to that promise.