By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden is expected to ask Congress for more than $770 billion for his U.S. defense budget for the next fiscal year as the Pentagon seeks to modernize the military, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations, eclipsing the record budget requests by former President Donald Trump.
Ongoing budget talks between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have coalesced around a proposed national defense request of higher than $770 billion for the 2023 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the sources said. Negotiations are ongoing within the administration and the final amount could change before the budget request is made in the coming months, the sources added.
The Pentagon referred queries to the OMB, which declined to comment.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
