Methodology & source manifest
Everything on the Department of War monitor derives from public records — the Comptroller's own display books and Green Book, the USAspending API, and reachable oversight documents. This page is the audit trail: method, sources, validation, and every flag.
Method
Discretionary vs. mandatory
The FY2027 request mixes a discretionary base with a one-time reconciliation/mandatory supplemental. This monitor keeps them strictly separate: the headline is the discretionary base drawn from the display books' “Discretionary Request” sheets; the mandatory money is read from the separate mandatory sheets and reported as a clearly-labeled supplemental line. The two are never summed into the discretionary headline. The discretionary base reconciles to the published national-defense (function 050) topline, with the non-DoW remainder (chiefly DOE/NNSA) flagged, not absorbed.
The domain rename
In 2025 the Department of Defense was redesignated the Department of War; the Comptroller's domain moved from comptroller.defense.gov to comptroller.war.gov. The new host is pinned throughout. USAspending still lists the toptier agency as “Department of Defense” (097); both names refer to the same department, and the monitor notes the mapping where it appears.
Source documents & validation ledger
Per-department historical breakdown (the Green Book's by-service rows) is a deferred enhancement; the history layer currently reports the department total, validated against the publisher's printed real-growth rates.