House
lawmakers appeared skeptical of the Obama Administration’s Fiscal 2015 overseas
contingency operations request during a testy hearing with senior Defense
Department officials Wednesday. The $58.6 billion request funds a range of
activities from supporting operations in Afghanistan to a new global counter
terrorism initiative and expanded assistance for European allies. Deputy
Defense Secretary Bob Work said the majority of the funds, some $53.7 billion,
will support the drawdown in Afghanistan to a force level of around 9,800
troops by year’s end, as well as activity for the Afghan security forces,
logistics, some reset costs, and other expenses. He pushed back on charges that
OCO
expenses are growing not shrinking with the drawdown, saying the argument
was “erroneous.” He noted that budgeting rules also allow OCO funds to support
costs outside of Afghanistan, such as intelligence and security cooperation
expenses. Chair Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) conceded an enduring need for OCO
but charged the request was late in arriving to Congress and has “little
detail” on other new funding requests and authorities. Work and Vice Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, who stressed that around $9 billion is
slated for reset costs, cautioned that if these funds go away and sequester
returns, reset will become enormously difficult. (See hearing
statements
here).