The Defense Department is expected to release its budget request for fiscal 2015 on March 4, according to an administration official.
That's the date the Obama administration will issue its federal spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, according to Steve Posner, a spokesman for the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
"The President’s 2015 Budget will be released on March 4," he said in an e-mail Friday. "Now that Congress has finished its work on this year’s appropriations, the Administration is able to finalize next year’s Budget. We are moving to complete the Budget as quickly as possible to help Congress return to regular order in the annual budget process."
By law, the president's budget is required to be submitted to Congress no later than the first Monday in February, which this year is Feb. 3, according to the Congressional Research Service. In practice, the spending plan isn't sometimes released until later.
Last year, for example, the administration didn't submit a budget request until April -- more than two months late -- due in part to a political stalemate over automatic cuts known as sequestration.
The Defense Department -- which receives the most funding of any federal agency -- plans to spend about $606 billion in fiscal 2014, which began Oct. 1.
