Congress gave DHS $10 billion to pay the Army back. The Army has received $0.

The finding, in one paragraph: when one federal department does work for another, the money is supposed to follow the work.▸ In 2025 the Department of Defense did more than $2 billion of the Department of Homeland Security's work — troops at the border, detainees on military bases, deportation flights — paying for it, in part, by deferring soldiers' barracks, elementary schools, and a clinic. Congress then appropriated a dedicated $10 billion so DHS could settle the bill. As of the Army's budget hearing this May, the Army had received none of the $1.4 billion it is owed — and the consequences named in the hearing record are cuts to flying hours and training rotations.

Three sets, read directly or verified against the releasing office's own text.▸ First, the December 10, 2025 cost report from Senator Warren's office and Representative Garamendi, itemizing what DoD obligated for immigration enforcement in 2025 and which military projects were deferred to fund it. Second, the December 12, 2025 letter from Senators Wyden, Merkley, and colleagues to Defense Secretary Hegseth, demanding a reimbursement accounting. Third, the May 2026 opening statement of House Armed Services Ranking Member Adam Smith at the Army's FY27 budget hearing, which puts the unpaid balance and its consequences on the committee record.

Where the money came from is the part the report itemizes by name: a $1 billion barracks renovation delayed; elementary schools at Fort Knox and at an installation in Germany; an ambulatory-care center and dental clinic at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island; a jet-training facility in Mississippi; Marine barracks in Japan.▸ The Pentagon's FY2026 budget request adds another $5 billion for border operations — new money for the mission, while last year's bill sits unpaid.

The defense of any unpaid IOU is usually that the money isn't there.▸ Here, the documents close that exit twice. DHS received roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement in the 2025 reconciliation law. And within that law, per the hearing record, Congress provided "$10 billion to address the shortfall faced by the Department of Defense for border support missions" — a fund whose purpose is the unpaid bill itself.

The statement's language is that of a creditor reading a ledger: "the Army has not received any of the $1.4 billion it is owed by DHS, despite the reconciliation bill providing DHS funding to avoid this exact situation.▸ As a result of this delinquency, the Army will suffer from imminent reductions in flying hours, training rotations" — the accounts a military draws down when its budget is quietly doing someone else's job. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers in May that reimbursement could see "meaningful movement" within weeks, as reported at the time; the committee, for its part, has demanded "a full accounting of readiness decisions being made because of DHS's failure to reimburse."

Three trackable dates.▸ The FY27 Army budget is now in markup with the unpaid $1.4 billion on the hearing record. The Pentagon's FY26 request for $5 billion more in border support awaits appropriations — new credit extended before the old bill is settled. And the Wyden-Merkley letter's demand for a reimbursement accounting remains the only formal mechanism asking DHS to show, line by line, what it has actually paid.

Obligation figures are the "at least" floors reported in the December 2025 cost report; the owed and received amounts are as stated on the House Armed Services Committee record in May 2026. Figures read directly from the cited documents.