President Obama doesn’t plan to ask Congress for additional authority to expand his military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria but he does want more money to fight the extremist group.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama plans to consult with Congress on his plans to defeat and dismantle the Islamic State and wants them to be a “partner” and engaged in the process.
“He is interested in their buy-in and is interested in a congressional debate … so [lawmakers] feel like the partners that they actually are,” Earnest said.
But he added that it is Obama’s responsibility as commander in chief to decide whether and when to take military action against the group. If Congress decides to take up the issue on its own and hold a vote giving Obama more authority, it has the power to do so, Earnest said.
“The president is not in the position where he sets the legislative floor calendar,” he said.
Congress will take up a wartime supplemental spending bill this fall, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations funds.
The Obama administration has requested $65.8 billion in extra funding for the draw down in Afghanistan and other national security efforts, including a $5 billion proposal the president made in his West Coast speech for a counter-terrorism partnership fund.
Earnest stressed that the $5 billion is an important request for the ISIS fight because it could be used to build partnerships with Middle East countries that are more familiar with the group’s activities as well as the local terrain.
“Ultimately, we need to get in a position that the U.S. is not solely responsible for dealing with these emerging threats,” he said. “This is something that the president has talked about but Congress has not voted on that would strengthen the hand of this president and future presidents.”
Even Democrats on Capitol Hill have said the administration needs to do more to say how it plans to use the $5 billion, and any action on future spending won’t take place until the lameduck Congressional session in November.
Obama sent the request to Congress after the House had completed consideration of the defense spending bill, so it wasn’t included.
“It is too early to speculate on its chances in the FY15 process, which would likely now occur in the lame duck,” a GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
