One of life's unanswerable questions, and it should not be this way?

[1-Old-Man]

What is the NSA's budget?

Good luck finding the answer. Let us presume, if nothing else the number is measured in the tens, and more likely in hundreds, of Billions of dollars.

[kentuck]

1. I think it is part of the CIA, satellite intelligence, and other secret programs.

I have seen estimates of $75 to 100 billion but we don't have the right to know. They have the right to keep that information from us.

[Rod Walker]

2. 8 to 10 Billion a year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsa

Let us presume, if nothing else the number is measured in the tens, and more likely in hundreds, of Billions of dollars.

Um...not quite.

[magellan]

4. That's only an estimate; their budget is classified

Maybe it's only $8-10 billion a year, or maybe it's "well north of $20 billion", as Gordon Adams, a former White House budget official for national security, suggested in one of the articles linked to the wiki budget estimate. (It was reckoned to be $8 billion back in 2007; doubt it's stayed pegged there since.)

[Rod Walker]

5. In any case, certainly not the hundreds of billions suggested in the OP.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Falls under

Department of Defense. First established by Harry Truman in 1947 (National Security Act of 1947) - it was the same Act that created agencies like the CIA (at least morphed it from OSS).

Dig into DoD's budget and you'll find it there.