Officials at the Pentagon have warned that a full year CR would reduce available funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) by more than $20 billion. A CR keeps funding for all programs at last year’s levels, meaning that large amounts of money could not be spent productively. For example, three billion dollars are earmarked for the Afghan National Security Force, which no longer exists, and cannot be spent on anything else.

Pay is also an issue. President Biden recently signed into law a 2.7 percent raise for uniformed military and federal employees. This was important, and could not wait. However, the funding to pay for it would be included in the 2022 budget, if it were to pass, and is not reflected in the 2021-level funding of a CR. This further strains the budget.

Additionally, CRs impose costs in efficiency, as long term planning or bulk purchases are difficult or impossible. Whether a program will remain funded or not is often in doubt, freezing progress in place and making it impossible to plan for the future. About 11 percent of total government expenditure is military expenditure, which means that if the wastage ratios for the DOD hold true across the government as a whole, the total amount of taxpayer money wasted would be approximately $182 billion – equivalent to more than a year of funding for the proposed Build Back Better plan.

At a time when the military needs to modernize and re-gear for conflict with near-peer adversaries, throwing a massive, expensive wrench into the gears of these efforts is the worst thing that Congress could do. A CR is better than a shutdown, but the costs of it are incredibly high.