Todd Harrison
Senior Fellow, Defense Budget Studies
Areas of Expertise
Defense Budgets, Military Compensation, Portfolio Management, Systems Engineering, Military Space Systems, Defense Acquisitions and Defense Industrial Base
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Todd Harrison is the Senior Fellow for Defense Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Mr. Harrison joined CSBA in 2009 from Booz Allen Hamilton, where he supported clients across the Department of Defense, assessing challenges to modernization initiatives and evaluating the performance of acquisition programs. He previously worked in the aerospace industry developing advanced space systems and technologies and served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.
Since joining CSBA, Mr. Harrison has authored a number of publications on trends in the overall defense budget, modernization initiatives, the defense industrial base, military personnel costs, and the cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. He frequently contributes to print and broadcast media and has appeared on CNBC, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera English, and Fox News. He has been a guest lecturer for a number of organizations, including Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the U.S. Army's School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), and the National Defense University.
He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with both a B.S. and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Mr. Harrison combines his budgetary, programmatic and engineering experience with a strong background in systems analysis to lead the Budget Studies program for CSBA. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
1. Defense Funding Under Sequestration Would Fall to FY 2007 Levels
2. War Funding Is Exempt from Budget Caps
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DoD faces a fundamental choice in how it prepares to trim its budget under such a high degree of uncertainty. It can change the way it does business or change the business it does. Under the deepest cuts proposed, it may well need to do both.
This monograph focuses on two main questions concerning what is most accurately described as the “military-industrial-Congressional” complex
While the Budget Control Act of 2011 resolves the debt ceiling issue through 2012, it leaves many budget issues unresolved. The future of the defense budget remains uncertain
For the first time in more than a decade, both the base budget and war budget are declining, but a smaller, less costly force does not necessarily equate to a less effective or less capable military