Carter opposes House authorizers' OCO budget plans

Defense Secretary Ash Carter opposes the House Armed Services Committee's budget proposal to shift $18 billion in overseas contingency operations money to the Pentagon base budget.

"I have serious concerns with a proposal from one of the defense committees to underfund DOD's overseas warfighting accounts by $18 billion, and spend that money on programmatic items we didn’t request," he told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Wednesday.

"While I don't expect this committee to consider such a proposal, I have to say that this approach is deeply troubling, and flawed for several reasons," he continued.

"It's gambling with warfighting money at a time of war -- proposing to cut off our troops' funding in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria in the middle of the year," Carter said. "It would spend money on things that are not DoD’s highest unfunded priorities across the joint force. It buys force structure without the money to sustain it and keep it ready, effectively creating hollow force structure, and working against our efforts to restore readiness. It doesn't address the much bigger strategic risk DoD faces of $100 billion in looming automatic cuts; in fact, it's a step in the direction of unraveling the Bipartisan Budget Act, which provided critical stability that DoD needs now and desires for the future. And it’s another road to nowhere, with uncertain chances of ever becoming law, and a high probability of leading to more gridlock and another continuing resolution -- exactly the kind of terrible distraction we've seen for years, that undercuts stable planning and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, dispirits troops and their families, baffles friends, and emboldens foes. I cannot support such maneuvers as Secretary of Defense."

Carter's statement to Senate appropriators comes as House authorizers debate the proposed fiscal year 2017 defense policy bill in what is expected to be a marathon mark-up session.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) defended the fiscal maneuver at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington last week amid questions asking whether the plan, which transfers $18 billion from the overseas contingency operations (OCO) account to the Pentagon's base budget, would create a "fiscal cliff" in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

"I'm just trying to turn a corner and not make it worse, because if we followed the president's budget, we would make it worse," Thornberry said. "I'm not going to make it worse."

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