National Priorities Project
The United States federal budget is a powerful resource: at $4 trillion, it’s about a fifth of the U.S. economy. What’s more, those resources come from us: a government for and by the people.
There is enormous power in these shared resources. We can harness that power to make our lives better, to create a more just and humane society. On the other hand, that power can be used to perpetuate destructive cycles of war, militarism, violence and oppression that go back to our nation’s founding and before.
Budgets are moral documents. It’s our responsibility as Americans to create a federal budget that upholds our most cherished values.
The National Priorities Project works to inspire and inform movements and individuals so that our federal resources prioritize peace, shared prosperity, and economic prosperity for all. We are the only nonprofit, non-partisan federal budget research organization in the nation with the mission to make the federal budget accessible to the American public.
We empower people to affect change through the creation of understandable, down to earth trainings, analysis, graphics and reports to illustrate how the federal budget affects us all, from the local level to the international.
Latest Work

Beware the Anti-China Sentiment Pushing Us Towards Another Cold War

The Biden Asylum Ban Swings Back and Forth in Judicial Courts

The Culture Wars Are Hijacking Debate On the Military Budget

Dwight Was Right: Congress Must Say No to Military Contractors

On July Fourth, Let’s Celebrate by Reimagining Immigration Policy

A Peek into the Poor People's Campaign Moral Poverty Action Congress

Debt Ceiling Deal Reinforced Washington’s Old Double Standard for Military Spending

For GOP, Debt Ceiling Deal Was Never About Debt — It Was About Conserving Power

Parity, Schmarity: The Budget Deal Gives 56% of the Discretionary Budget to the Military

REPORT: The Warfare State: How Funding for Militarism Compromises Our Welfare

The U.S. Still Spends More on Its Military Than Over 144 Nations Combined

Climate and Militarism Converges at Power Shift 2023

Tax Day 2023: Where Your 2022 Tax Dollars Went

The Biden Budget Does Some Good on Poverty and Fairness. It Could Do More if it Cut the Pentagon.

IPS Looks Back on 20 Years of Endless War and Border Militarization

One of the Highest Military Budgets in History

After 20 Years, the Department of Homeland Security Is a Money-Guzzling Failure

A Quarter of Biden’s Budget Will Go to Pentagon Contractors

A Quarter of Biden’s Budget Will Go to Pentagon Contractors

Seven Things We Could Do If We Cut the Pentagon by $100 Billion