For Department of Defense Comptroller Mike McCord, the Bipartisan Budget Act is much like waiting for Santa Claus.

It's certainly a welcome sight, even if you have to wait until December to see it, he said.

"The pattern for [these budget deals] tend to come late in the year," he said, speaking at the Professional Services Council's 2015 Vision Conference Nov. 19. "Murray-Ryan came after FY2014 had already started, this deal came after FY2016 had already started. It comes in these short one or two-year packages not at the last minute, but certainly late in the day."

"Basically, you have to wait," he added. "You have to pace like Christmas coming. It's going to come, but you can't make it come early, even if you wish it would."

Despite the wait, the BBA is a relief, McCord said, delivering the DoD not everything it asked for, but certainly not the lump of coal that the sequester caps had forecast.

"Ever since the Supercommittee failed, we've never had the worst-case outcome of full sequester on time. We've also never had the best case outcome of what the president has asked for," he said.

What DoD will get in 2016 and 2017 is what McCord estimated to be a budget of $533 billion in 2016 and possibly $530 billion in 2017 if the BBA goes through, though he stressed the numbers were not final. The budget does include more spending for the department's Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which supplies war efforts in Afghanistan and other operations.

The BBA provides $59 billion to the OCO to help lift DoD above the sequester spending caps, which McCord said was by design and bolsters the department's outlook with some funding stability.

"We are definitely in a better place than where we have been," he said.

Through a combination of Ryan-Murray, the BBA and portions of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, McCord said DoD has been able to save about $75 billion above the worst-case sequester caps through 2017 and the department hopes to do at least the same through 2018-2021.

"We are very grateful that the appropriations committees have some more time to make some more rational choices for 2016 in the appropriations space and for 2017 just for the budget," McCord said.

While BBA does promise relief and guidance for the next two years, agencies are still keeping a wary eye on the appropriations process as it moves forward ahead of a December deadline.

"It's important to remember that we don't actually have any money yet from this deal," McCord said.

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