WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Republicans voted in lockstep against U.S. Senator Jack Reed’s (D-RI) amendment to restore honest accounting and fully fund needed investments in the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) base budget in the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The $612 billion FY 2016 NDAA sets the budgetary guidelines and policy framework for defense expenditures.  Reed’s amendment sought to create the space for a bipartisan solution to replace harmful, automatically triggered budget cuts so that America maintains a strong military abroad and strong nation at home.

The Republican leadership is trying to maintain a veneer of fiscal responsibility by underfunding DOD’s base budget to the tune of nearly $40 billion and instead funneling that exact amount into an emergency war spending account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding, which is exempted from Budget Control Act spending caps.  Because OCO is for short-term, emergency war spending, this budget gimmick fails to provide sustained funding for our troops and could cost taxpayers more in the long run.  It undermines national security by making it harder for the military to effectively plan for the future. 

Senator Reed’s amendment, which the entire Democratic caucus supported, would have provided the $50.9 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding DOD says it needs, and the level the President requested.  But it would take any OCO allocation above that amount and fence it off until the Budget Control Act caps for defense and non-defense are adjusted in a balanced, proportionally equal manner.  The amendment failed by a vote of 46-51.

After the vote, Reed, the Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement:

“There are many good reforms in the NDAA but they are compromised by the inefficient, irresponsible OCO budget gimmick. 

“Republicans are proposing that about one out of every six dollars in the NDAA, roughly $88.9 billion, be counted off the books. 

“This misuse of OCO for non-war related activities is irresponsible.  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together to find a more balanced, responsible way forward that addresses both defense and domestic spending, because they are both essential to the economic and national security of the American people.  We can’t be strong abroad if we are weak at home.

“Sending the President a bill to veto just leads to more government by crisis, and another partisan legislative cliff.  Our troops face enough challenges without Congress manufacturing new ones, and I’m concerned that the Republican leadership’s unwillingness to tackle tough challenges and get to work now will have a negative impact on our economy and national security going forward.  

“We shouldn’t wait to solve this problem.  We need to get to the table now and work together to eliminate the threat of sequestration, just as every single military leader has asked us to do.  And if Congress fails to do so then it is undermining our security and the financial well-being of all Americans.”

“We have a responsibility to our service men and women to produce a final bill that is worthy of their sacrifice.  We have no choice but to keep working, and I am confident we can eventually reach a principled agreement that improves upon this unsustainable approach.”

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