Defense Budget Process

Question 1

What law identifies the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the Senior ranking member of the Armed Forces?

Answer 1

The Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1966

Question 2

The military operational chain of command runs from the President to whom?

Answer 2

The Secretary of Defense to the Combatant Commanders

Question 3

The Commanders of the Combatant Commands are responsible to whom for accomplishing the assigned military mission?

Answer 3

The President and the Secretary of Defense

Question 4

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military advisor to which officials and/or organizations?

Answer 4

The President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense

Question 5

Who serves as the Chairman of the National Security Council?

Answer 5

The President

Question 6

Name the three major phases of the PPBE process that result in the DoD portion of the President’s Budget that is submitted to Congress?

Answer 6

Planning, Programming, and Budgeting

Question 7

What is the name of the process used by DoD to determine the dollar amounts for programs to be
submitted to Congress as part of the President’s budget?

Answer 7

Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Process

Question 8

What is the title of the senior OSD official responsible for the planning phase of the PPBE process?

Answer 8

Undersecretary of Defense (Policy)

Question 9

What is the title of the senior OSD official responsible for issuing programming guidance?

Answer 9

Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (D,CAPE)

Question 10

What is the title of the senior OSD official who is the principal advisor and assistant to the SECDEF for budget and fiscal matters?

Answer 10

Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chlef Financial Officer

Question 11

The Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) serves as the Chairman of what Board?

Answer 11

Defense Acquisition Board (DAB)

Question 12

Assume today’s date is 1 March 2014 and your organization knows about a new project or
requirement that will require its initial funding in FY 2021. What is the first PPBE-related document In
which you could identify resources for that requirement?

Answer 12

POM 2017 - 2021

Question 13

What is the title of the final document of the planning phase?

Answer 13

Defense Planning Guidance (DPG)

Question 14

What is the title of the document prepared by the D. CAPE and USD(C) In the May to June time
frame that provides guidance to Components for preparation of their POM and BES submissions?

Answer 14

Integrated Program/Budget Review Guidance

Question 15

What is the name of the automated database that summarizes all forces, resources, and equipment
associated with programs approved by the Secretary of Defense?

Answer 15

Future Years Defense Program (FYDP)

Question 16

What is the phase of the PPBE process in which programmatic decisions are translated into requested resources in an appropriations format?

Answer 16

Budgeting (Budget Development)

Question 17

What is the name of the document prepared by the Joint Staff after it’s review of POMs submitted by the Military Departments that focuses on the balance and capabilities contained in those POMs? (This document provides the SECDEF with the JCS evaluation of the Military Departments’ POM submissions.)

Answer 17

Chairman’s Program Assessment (CPA) [Chairman, JCS]

Question 18

Near the end of the budget review process. the SECDEF and DEPSEC may conduct a review of Component major policy or budget issues that have not yet been resolved. Resolution of these issues may displace other programs within the fixed DoD topline. What are the two names by which this review is known?

Answer 18

OSD/OMB Budget Review; Fall Review

Question 19

Following a review of a Component’s budget submission and a potential budget hearing in the fall time frame, the reviewing USD(C) budget analyst prepares a draft document that is submitted to the DEPSECDEF or SECDEF for a decision. Once signed by one of those senior officials, what is that document called?

Answer 19

Resource Managment Decision

Question 20

After all resource-related decisions have been made by the DEPSECDEF or SECDEF to determine the Defense portion of the President’s Budget, the USD(C) posts final decisions into a database in the proper appropriation account format. What is the title of that database?

Answer 20

Comptroller Information System (CIS)

Question 21

Advance Procurement is an exception to what funding policy?

Answer 21

Full Funding

Question 22

Within what type document does Congress specify the number of fiscal years that an appropriation
account remains current and available for new obligations?

Answer 22

Appropriations Bill (becomes law when signed by the President)

Question 23

There are two primary methods by which DoD obligates the vast majority of its appropriations. Name
those two methods.

Answer 23

Contracts; MIPRs

Question 24

Assume an agency has issued an Economy Act order to another Federal agency for specific services,
the cited appropriation has gone into an expired status, and the servicing agency has neither provided
the ordered services nor has entered into an authorized contract with another entity to provide the
ordered services. What must now be done with those obligated funds?

Answer 24

De-obligated

Question 25

What is the term used for shifting funds between appropriations?

Answer 25

Transfer Action

Question 26

What is the long-term financial goal of a working capital fund?

Answer 26

Break-even

Question 27

A working capital fund has an Officer (0-4) properly assigned to the organization and that officer
is doing the work that would normally be performed by a GS-13. For managerial cost accounting purposes is the “cost” of that officer’s pay and benefits “charged” at the military 0-4 rate or the civilian GS-13 rate?

Answer 27

GS-13 Civilian Rate (and the proper MILPER account is reimbursed for that amount)

Question 28

Assume your organization overpaid a contractor on a contract awarded with an appropriation that is
now in the cancelled status, and the contractor has sent in a check for that overpayment. What can your organization legally do with that refund from the contractor?

Answer 28

Credit the refund to miscellaneous receipts of the U.S. Treasury

Question 29

Monies not appropriated by Congress that are generated primarily from the sale of goods and services are known as what?

Answer 29

Non-appropriated Funds