The Pentagon has asked Congress to shift $1 billion from the Army’s budget to pay for President Obama’s dispatch of 3,000 troops to west Africa to help limit the spread of the Ebola virus.
“It won’t affect our readiness in any other area,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured lawmakers Thursday when asked about the request at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
Lawmakers were already concerned that Obama’s announcement Tuesday of the anti-Ebola initiative would draw attention away from other crises, such as the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the showdown with Russia over Ukraine.
The $1 billion — on top of $30 million already approved — will go toward setting up a military command center in Liberia and 17 treatment centers around the country. U.S. troops also will train African health workers to fight the disease.
The money will come from funds appropriated in fiscal 2014, which ends Sept. 30. When asked by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., whether more funding would be needed in fiscal 2015, Hagel replied: “We’re working it right now with comptrollers and the appropriations people on the Hill.”
