ABSTRACT
This book has reviewed a broad array of agencies, institutions, and processes involved in the national security budgeting process.1 As it stands, every part of the executive branch’s national security planning and budgeting system is in flux, from State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to defense, to intelligence, to homeland security, to the interagency and White House process. The Congress has made changes to its budgeting structures and processes, as well. In this chapter, we look at the future of planning and budgeting for national security, focusing on reforms that are under way or have been proposed. These changes grow out of the experience agencies have had dealing with such international events as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the postinvasion experience in Iraq. They represent a growing awareness of the defects of current budget processes. Overall, the reforms being proposed are designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the national security budget process inside agencies and the Congress, increase institutional capacity for strategic planning and the link to budget planning, and develop processes and capabilities to deal with the challenging security issues of the twenty-first century, which cut across agency programs and missions.
