WASHINGTON – Whether or not lawmakers will grant the White House the entirety of its new $5.6 billion war-funding request remains very much unclear.
The White House several weeks ago asked Congress for that amount to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. If approved, it would be on top of about $60 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO) funds lawmakers are preparing to hand the executive branch as part of a massive end-of-session funding bill.
But just how much more the White House and Pentagon will get is still up in the air.
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairs of the chambers' Appropriations committees, are in talks about a massive government-wide omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year.
CongressWatch has confirmed that measure will include a full 2015 Pentagon appropriations bill.
But Mikulski is not committing — at least not yet — to the full $5.6 billion for the Islamic State fight.
Asked by CongressWatch late last week if she has concluded that the $5.6 billion is needed, she replied, "We're kind of working on the numbers."
Lawmakers have until Dec. 11, when an existing stopgap measure is set to expire, to pass some form of a government-funding bill.
Congressional leaders favor the kind of government-wide omnibus that Rogers and Mikulski are working on; conservative House Republicans, joined by a handful in the Senate, favor more short-term measures as a stick in their battle with the White House and Democrats over the president's coming executive order on immigration.
The $5.6 billion Islamic State request would likely be put on hold if House Republican leaders opt to only move a short-term continuing resolution next month. ■
Email: jbennett@defensenews.com.
