NORFOLK, Va. — With a possible federal government shutdown just days away, new numbers from the Pentagon show that Virginia is the number one state in the nation for defense spending currently.
Virginia is home to the Pentagon, the world's largest Naval Base — Naval Station Norfolk, the Navy's East Coast Master Jet Base —NAS Oceana, and the world's only maker of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers — Newport News Shipbuilding.
The report says the Department of Defense spent $62.7 billion in Virginia in the 2022 fiscal year.
That places Virginia ahead of Texas, California and Florida.
Rounding out the top 10 were New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Arizona.
The announcement raises questions about how Virginia and the other states could be, in the event of a prolonged shut-down.
The last shutdown — in late 2018 and early 2019 — lasted 35 days.
Overall, defense spending fell in the 2022 fiscal year as the federal government ramped down its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. DoD contract obligations and payroll spending in the 50 states and the District of Columbia decreased by $10.1 billion over the prior year. This is the result of a 2.3 percent decrease in DoD contract obligations and a 0.06 percent decrease in payroll spending.