As Always, the Defense Budget Is a Place to Hide Non-Defense Spending

This article summarizes a bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved. However, the bill must be approved by the full Senate, reconciled with the House version of the bill if it is different, the final bill must be approved by both houses and signed by the president to become law.  The best way to follow this bill would be through http://thomas.gov. 

The particulars of defense spending are generally outside my  field. The only area in which I can offer any expertise is with regards to Title XI, which contains in part the following expenditures:

Defense Health Programs $28.3 billion
-- Provides $407 million above the President’s budget request
-- Provides $240 million for cancer research. The total amount is distributed as follows:
* $150 million for the Breast Cancer Research Program
* $80 million for the Prostate Cancer Research Program
* $10 million for the Ovarian Cancer Research Program
-- Provides $50 million for a medical research fund
-- Provides $60 million for a Peer Reviewed Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program
-- Provides $307 million to address the TRICARE private sector shortfall in fiscal year 2010 as identified by the Department of Defense

One would think that most of this spending would belong in the Health and Human Services budget.  However, the US has a history of hiding essentially non-defense spending in the defense budget and this budget is no different.  Politicians are more likely to vote for expenditures that are labeled as defense related rather than social spending or spending that might be claimed to be "picking winners." 

I would advise those who research federal government health care spending to include these amounts in their analysis. I would also advise anyone who looks at how any aspect of the federal budget affects the companies they follow to scrutinize all parts of the defense budget.