The report stated that infrastructure activities accounted for $160 billion in fiscal year 1994, or about 60 percent of DOD’s total obligational authority. In our 1995 report, we concluded that, based on our analysis of the 1996 FYDP using the program elements that we considered to be associated with infrastructure activities, the proportion of infrastructure funding in the total defense budget would remain relatively constant through 2001. Using the FYDP, DOD has clearly identified program elements that fund infrastructure activities and refer to these as “direct infrastructure.” However, there are parts of the total infrastructure funding that cannot be clearly identified in the FYDP. Activities that provide support services to the mission programs and primarily operate from fixed locations are classified as infrastructure programs. In fiscal year 1996, intelligence, space, and command, control, and communications programs accounted for $25.2 billion, or 20 percent of mission programs. No Significant Net Infrastructure Savings Are Projected Through 2001

Our review of DOD’s fiscal year 1996 FYDP found no significant net infrastructure savings between fiscal years 1996 and 2001 because the proportion of infrastructure in the DOD budgets under current plans will remain relatively constant through 2001. Most Infrastructure Activities Are Funded by the Operation and Maintenance and Military Personnel Appropriations

As shown in figure 3, most direct infrastructure activities are funded by operation and maintenance and military personnel appropriations. Specific Options for Reducing DOD’s Infrastructure

We present 13 options in appendix I where estimates of budgetary savings were developed by CBO.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO: (1) reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) infrastructure activities and their associated costs in the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) to determine whether DOD plans to spend less for infrastructure activities by fiscal year (FY) 2001; and (2) summarized its work that identified opportunities for DOD to reduce or streamline infrastructure activities, and asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate potential budgetary savings.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) there are no significant net infrastructure savings to DOD between FY 1996 and FY 2001, based on GAO analysis of infrastructure-related program elements in FYDP; (2) the proportion of planned infrastructure funding in DOD budgets will remain relatively constant at about 60 percent through 2001; (3) the combination of operation and maintenance and military personnel appropriations fund about 80 percent of infrastructure activities that can be identified in FYDP; (4) DOD excludes most intelligence, space, and command, control, and communications programs the provide support services to mission programs from its definition of infrastructure; (5) these programs account for about $25.2 billion in FY 1996; (6) parts of total infrastructure funding cannot be clearly identified in FYDP, including funds that pay for Defense Business Operations Fund activities; and (7) there were 13 options for consolidating, streamlining, or reengineering infrastructure activities that CBO estimates could result in savings of $11.8 billion from FY 1997 through FY 2001.