House leaders are contemplating the addition of funds to the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account—which funds wartime expenses—to augment operations against the Islamic State terror group, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee told reporters on Tuesday.
After the Islamic State’s attack on Paris last weekend, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) asked HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and the chairmen of the House Appropriations, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees to develop short and long term solutions to help counter the terror group, which is also called ISIL and ISIS.
“We’re looking at it in greater detail right now, but the short answer is yes, I think we do need greater resources in the OCO account to have a more significant effort” against ISIL, Thornberry said.
Some language may be able to be rolled into the omnibus spending bill that Congress plans to pass to fund fiscal year 2016 expenses. “I’m not going to just throw out numbers until we have a chance to really get into details and be more specific, but my sense is if we’re going to be serious about it, we’ve got to have more resources devoted to the issue,” he added.
The task force is also considering whether to recommend putting a four-star general in charge of counter-ISIL operations. That official would work with the Iraqi military and other forces fighting ISIL. Current operations—headed by three-star Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland—are being micromanaged by the White House National Security Council, which is dictating what targets can be hit and under what circumstances, Thornberry said.
“A huge percentage of the air sorties we have carried out over Iraq and Syria have not dropped their ordnance,” he said. “The French have carried out all of these bombing runs over the past couple days, all on targets that we gave them. The question is, why haven’t we hit those targets already? They were all packaged up and ready to go, and the French are willing to engage those targets, and we’re not.”
“The military has to be in charge of the military campaign against ISIS,” he added.
Next year’s budget may also need an increase to OCO, which the Bipartisan Budget Deal set at about $59 billion. Thornberry said that number was clearly meant to be a floor, and that current events could drive additional funding.
During a speech on the Senate floor, Senate Armed Services Committee John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for the United States to step up its campaign of airstrikes. Ground troops are also needed to train, advise and conduct forward air control operations alongside the Iraqi Security Forces, Syrian opposition, the Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni tribal forces battling ISIL, he said.
“That will likely entail a commitment on the order of 10,000 U.S. troops,” he said.