Pentagon leaders on Tuesday said that it’s war fund request adequately meets all of its needs for the upcoming fiscal year, despite criticism from Capitol Hill that the administration is underfunding the troops yet again.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said that the $58.8 billion overseas contingency operations fund, or OCO, was “built from the bottom up” to fund everything the department needs to do in fiscal 2017, including maintaining a higher troop presence in Afghanistan, fighting the Islamic State and providing more reassurance to European allies.
“This OCO budget provides us everything we need we believe right now to execute our global operations,” Work told reporters at the Pentagon.
Leaders in Congress have already criticized the number the administration is asking for to fund overseas operations. The $58.8 billion number matches the number recommended by lawmakers in last year’s Bipartisan Budget Act, but that was set prior to terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., events which have prompted the U.S. to step up its fight against the Islamic State.
Lawmakers argue that the amount included in the budget deal was meant to be just a placeholder that the administration could adjust based on its needs and that it was supposed to be a minimum expenditure, not a maximum.
“I am disappointed that this request does not adhere to the budget agreement made just last fall,” Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “Last year, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act, which establishes a minimum level of funding for our military. I hoped such an agreement would provide some budget stability and begin to rebuild our military. Unfortunately, this administration continues to play budgetary games with our country’s security and diminishes what credibility it had left.”
A House committee staff member said that the administration is cutting into base budget requirements to pay for additional spending overseas necessitated by a changing security environment instead of raising the OCO budget level, which was the intent of lawmakers in last year’s budget deal.
The staffer estimated that the administration should increase its OCO budget by between $15 to $23 billion to adequately fund all its obligations and priorities.
The overseas contingency operations fund, part of the Pentagon’s total $582.7 billion request for fiscal 2017, includes $41.7 billion for operations in Afghanistan, $7.5 billion to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and $3.4 billion to increase troop presence and conduct more exercises in Europe.
The war chest also includes $200 million for priorities in Africa. Work said that money will facilitate partnerships with indigenous and partner forces to defeat terrorist groups in the region, including al Shabab, Boko Haram and a new chapter of the Islamic State in Libya.
