As with many other social disciplines, the understanding of legislative activities and the American political process begins with a reading list. In the DoD environment, the distance between a fundable articulated need and the actualization of executed funding for that need is not insubstantial. DoD budget processes are interwoven and overlapping. While Congress is concentrating on passing the current budget, DoD is working on POMs or MiniPOMs for the out years. The National Security Strategy is reworked in four year increments. Policy recommendations must be submitted for staffing approximately two years out to have an opportunity of being included in a NDAA recommendation. All said, we seldom discuss the current year and are usually focused on the next FY or the one after.