Defense Department officials have preached three goals for the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) over the last several years of cost-cutting reforms: preserve shopper savings; reduce taxpayer support, and reverse an alarming slide in sales, which have fallen 25 percent since peaking at more than $6 billion in 2012. In what might be seen as a stunning disregard for number three, to reverse the exodus of patrons, the Trump administration's fiscal 2020 defense budget asks Congress to slash funding for commissaries by $271 million, or 21 percent. If lawmakers agree, appropriated dollars on which stores still depend would fall to $995 million next year, a 30 percent cut overall over three years to a benefit still prized as a key element of military compensation — grocery discounts. Read more about the proposed cut on Military.com.