WASHINGTON — A lead hawk in the US House fired back at Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday for his criticism of a House GOP plan to fund defense next year, saying the Pentagon's top official has "lost total credibility" on budget matters.
House Armed Services Tactical AirLand Subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, made his pointed comments on a conference call with reporters Thursday, hours after an all-night session saw the House Armed Services Committee vote to send the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act to the full House.
At issue is a plan, formulated by HASC chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Tx., Texas, that takes $18 billion out of the Pentagon’s special Ooverseas Ccontingency Ooperations (OCO) wartime fund and invest it into buying more weapon systems in the base budget. More importantly, it sets an expiation for OCO come April of 2017, a tactic designed to force the next president to request a new war-funding supplemental.
Turner, like Thornberry previously, defended the bill's blurring of overseas contingency operations and base-budget funding as necessary to adequately fund national security. But that argument is not holding water with Carter, who has used a pair of appearances on the Hill in the last 48 hours to blast Thornberry's plan as dangerous at a time when the US is involved in multiple combat operations.
During an appearance Wednesday in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Carter attempted to throw cold water on the Thornberry plan, saying it amounts to "gambling" with troops' funding at a time of war and calling it "deeply troubling" and "flawed."
He continued that line on Thursday, saying he has "serious concerns" with the HASC taking money from OCO and putting it towards "programmatic items we didn't request."
"I have to say, this approach is deeply flawed and troubling. Having detailed my objections yesterday before the appropriations committee, today in the context of this testimony, I just want to highlight the danger of underfunding our war effort, gambling with funding for our troops in places like Iraq and Syria," Carter said. "As Secretary of Defense, I cannot support such a maneuver."
Shortly after Carter made his comments, Turner ripped into the secretary for condemning the $583 billion bill agreed to by the HASC, which authorizes $524 billion for the base budget and $58.8 billion for the OCO account.
Some defense hawks in Congress, including Turner, have an interpretation of the 2015 budget deal in which the $59 billion allocated for OCO was a minimum to be raised based on current threats. Turner Thursday accused Carter of delivering a budget to Congress that doesn't match the deal.
"So he doesn't have a whole lot of credibility to judge our having stuck with the plan that he previously agreed to and now reneged on," Turner said.
Democrats and the administration have sought parity on the non-defense side, leading Turner to conclude the president's budget request kept defense artificially low in order to request more spending on the non-defense side.
"In the end, this administration has to come to grips with the fact that they're leaving and this bill about the future under a new administration," Turner said. "They should look at it as, 'Is this bill good for national security?' Sign it and walk out of the White House."
The plan has some key supporters in the House as it heads to a floor vote, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who said the appropriations committee will use the same numbers.
The HASC passed the plan with a bipartisan 60-2 vote and the committee's ranking Democrat, Adam Smith, of Washington, said although he will back the bill though he has problems with its "fiscal cliff issue" and rejected GOP comparisons to a 2008 war supplemental passed in President Obama's first days.
"If we continue down the route that this bill goes down, which has the OCO running out about halfway through the year, we are counting on a supplemental," Smith said in a statement Thursday. "If this is the environment versus the environment before, it is a much, much more risky proposition."
It is no surprise Carter has brought up his concerns during visits to the two Senate committees, as they represent a natural break on Thornberry's plan. . Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., has indicated he is leaning towards a different, unspecified plan for his bill, and the two sides will have to go to conference – if the language even survives a full House vote.
However, Carter's early criticism of the HASC language could be a sign that he would recommend President Barack Obama veto any defense bill which comes to his desk with the Thornberry OCO plan attached.
Speaking on background, a senior defense official said a potential veto will be discussed "within the context of the entire bill. There is a formal process associated with that."
Senate's Assistant Minority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Wednesday appeared to be keeping his powder dry on the House GOP plan.
"We have no budget resolution, so we're making this up as we go along," said Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. "The basic rules have been and continue to be: equal spending on defense and non-defense, no poison pill riders, live up to the budget agreement. Now OCO is obviously being redefined from war funds to investment-in-defense funds. I'm waiting to see the final product, but we have to play by the rules."
Email: jgould@defensenews.com | amehta@defensenews.com
Twitter: @ReporterJoe | @AaronMehta
Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
