House Speaker Paul Ryan mocked President Obama for a providing Congress with a seven-page document outlining his strategy to defeat the Islamic State, which Ryan says shows a lack of seriousness from the White House.
“[T]hey’re phoning it on radical Islamic terrorism, and they’re not doing anything near what we need to do,” Ryan told former Education Secretary Bill Bennett during a radio interview on Tuesday.
Obama’s team provided the summary last week, five weeks past its legally mandated due date. Ryan and other congressional Republicans faulted him for his tardiness and for the contents of the report, which they said failed to provide the necessary detail.
“I guess you could say that that’s a good thing that he finally gave us a plan,” Ryan said. “But what was more disheartening and just shocking about it was it was just a recitation of the status quo of what they’re doing.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said the document didn’t fulfill all the requirements set out in the law. “The seven-page document fails to provide much new information and fails to address all the elements required by law, such as identifying which groups must be engaged to counter violent extremism,” Thornberry said in a statement. “It is unsettling to know that this report may reflect the actual depth of strategic thought within the administration on how to face this grave threat.”
Ryan hopes congressional Republicans can develop a series of national security proposals that could shift the foreign policy debate in favor of the GOP. “Our Task Force on National Security is working on a specific policy agenda to build a stronger, safer and more Confident America,” his team promised in a follow-up press release.
