The administration more than doubled its requested money for the Overseas Contingency Operations account, which is excluded from defense budget caps.
By Paul Sonne Paul Sonne National security reporter focusing on the U.S. military Email Bio Follow March 11 at 7:38 PM President Trump asked for a massive increase in the Pentagon’s war-fighting account in an attempt to spend more on defense without having to cut a deal with Democrats on domestic programs, even as he promises to end U.S. military entanglements abroad.
The reason: It’s a backdoor way to increase the defense budget while technically staying within the confines of caps that run for two more years. The result is a brewing battle with Democrats over how much the United States should spend on its military versus domestic priorities. On Monday, the White House unveiled a budget that sought a $750 billion budget for national defense, a 5 percent increase from the current fiscal year, while requesting cuts on domestic programs long important to Democrats, including Medicaid, food stamps, environmental protection, as well as reductions in foreign aid.
In an op-ed in RealClearPolitics last month, Vought wrote that pursuing this goal by requesting additional defense funds in the OCO account was the “only fiscally responsible option” to meet national security needs while avoiding yet another increase to the spending caps.In a statement, Rep. Nita M.
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