{"id":18713,"date":"2020-10-14T16:35:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T16:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/10\/14\/end-the-pentagons-oco-slush-fund\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:46:30","slug":"end-the-pentagons-oco-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2020\/10\/14\/end-the-pentagons-oco-slush-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"End the Pentagon\u2019s OCO slush fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the global war on terror began less than a month after Sept. 11, 2001, Congress created the overseas contingency operations account<\/a> as a one-time supplemental appropriation to the budget for the Department of Defense. But like many other emergency or temporary federal expenditures<\/a>, the OCO was greatly expanded<\/a> and used for unrelated purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the United States marked 19 years of conflict in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2020, the DoD is still receiving a significant portion of its funding through the OCO. It is long past time to unwind this account, which has transitioned into a slush fund designed to inflate spending at the DoD far above the baseline budget and for purposes unrelated to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and military operations in other countries, like Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fiscal abuse became particularly acute following the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011, when members of Congress started to use the OCO to bypass the spending restraints applied to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DoD has received approximately $2 trillion<\/a> from the OCO since 2001. Were it considered to be a federal agency, the $70.7 billion provided for the OCO in fiscal 2020 would make it the fourth largest, dwarfing spending at all other agencies except the DoD as well as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCO spending has long outpaced the military\u2019s presence in combat zones. In FY08, the U.S. was actively fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and deployed an average of 187,000 troops<\/a> in these countries. OCO spending topped $187 million<\/a> in that year, equating to $1,000 per service member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, the U.S. has approximately 14,300 troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, meaning the $70.7 billion for the OCO in FY20 equates to $4.9 million in funding per service member, nearly 5,000 times the amount in FY08. With President Donald Trump planning to further reduce the military\u2019s footprint in Afghanistan, the trend of outsized OCO spending relative to troops abroad is likely to continue in FY21.<\/p>\n\n\n\t