WASHINGTON — A key GOP chairman says the State Department is too reliant on war funding, and is setting out to change that.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., expressed concerns during a Tuesday hearing that nearly 15 percent of the department’s spending comes from the fund that has been used to pay for America’s post-9/11 conflicts.
“Our overseas contingency operations funding still compose about 14 percent of spending,” Corker said, “and at some point I think we all know we’ve got to move away from funding through OCO to getting things on an enduring budget.”
The new chairman said he wants to end the practice.
“That’s something that through the budget process, we’re going to attempt to do this year,” Corker said.
“The State Department right now has an over-reliance on OCO and carryover balances,” Corker said. “And I think there’s a great concern that those carryover balances create a lack of discipline within the department.”
Corker sees that as bad budgeting that creates ripples, waves, echoing congressional Republicans and Democrats — as well as budget experts — who warn the off-books account is creating poor budget practices within the nationals security agencies and adding to the national deficit because a percentage of it has been borrowed since 9/11.
“The budget’s misalignment with strategic planning efforts such as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review process, those not being linked up in an appropriate way seem to miss an opportunity to make sure that we are aligned properly,” he said
Later in the hearing, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the department’s use of what some federal budget analysts and watchdogs have dubbed a “slush fund.”
“We rely on OCO because, frankly, [annual] appropriations aren’t on time. And so, we need multiyear authority to do multiyear tasks,” Kerry told the committee. “And we need to get the resources to be able to respond to this kind of thing.”
The secretary explained that State uses war funds for a range of programs related to current global hot spots.
“We’ve got $7 billion in OCO. And we’re putting a fair amount of that into Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria. Humanitarian assistance, counterterrorism partnership,” he said. “Countering Russian pressure, we have $350 million. So, that’s how we’re bolstering Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, to actually go after this. It’s not enough. I’m just telling you bluntly, it’s not enough.”
Under questioning from Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Kerry told him “you’re right” about the department being over-reliant on the war account.
“We are, and it’s because we can’t get the budget increase we need to institutionalize it,” the secretary said before urging the panel to “put it in the budget.”
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Notably, Kerry signaled that while overall OCO levels might go down in the future, the fund is unlikely to completely go away.
When Flake asked whether OCO requests from State would stop if Congress increased its annual budget, Kerry shot back: “Well, no.”
“No way for me to come in front of you and tell you that,” Kerry said. “I’m saying, look, you’re always going to have an emergency.”
email: jbennett@defensenews.com
Twitter:@bennettjohnt
