Ongoing airstrikes in Iraq against the terrorist group Islamic State may affect the yet-to-be-finalized defense budget in fiscal year 2015, officials have said, though it is unclear when Congress will pass the bill and therefore how much time there is to align future operations with funding.
In a Pentagon press conference on Thursday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said that already “the adaptations we’ve made to our global posture and in particular our regional posture in response to the tasks we’ve been given has been really remarkable.” He added that, in terms of funding the operations in Iraq, “I think we’re fine for fiscal year ’14 and we’ll have to continue to gather the data and see what it does to us in ’15.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel noted that the FY ’15 Overseas Contingency Operations fund included a $5 billion counterterrorism fund, and $500 million of that would go to supporting moderate Syrian opposition groups that could help counter the Islamic State, formerly called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“You’re constantly shaping a budget to assure that resources match the mission and the mission and the resources match the threat,” he said. “You’re shifting all the time on what you think is going to be required. I mean, we’ve had to move assets over the last couple of months, obviously, to accomplish what we accomplished in Iraq. That costs money, that takes certain monies out of certain funds. So it’s a constant, fluid process as you plan for these.”
For better or worse, Congress is still unsure if it will be able to pass the FY ’15 defense policy and spending bills before the start of the new fiscal year. The fact that they’re not passed yet means lawmakers can still tweak them to adjust to reflect ongoing airstrikes, advisory groups, humanitarian aid missions and more in Iraq. But if the bills do not pass by Sept. 30, the new counterterrorism fund and others cannot take effect on time.
On the policy side, the House has already passed its National Defense Authorization Act–prior to the Pentagon releasing its OCO request–and the Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version and is awaiting a floor vote in the full Senate.
House Armed Services Committee spokesman Claude Chafin said Friday that “because we got the OCO so late–and it included new [counterterrorism] programs already–there could be space for adjustment if DoD makes an additional request” for money for operations in Iraq. He noted that DoD has not made any new requests, but that those requests would be addressed during conference committee between HASC and SASC–which will be needed, because the HASC bill included only a placeholder in the absence of the actual OCO request.
On the spending side, Vince Morris, spokesman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the committee still hopes to do an omnibus bill–where all 12 of the subcommittees’ spending bills are rolled into a single vote–when the Senate returns in September. The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed eight of its 12 bills, but Senate leadership has not scheduled floor votes for any of them yet. The House Appropriations Committee has passed all its bills, with seven passing the full House.
Though the defense bill is among the eight completed Senate spending bills, Morris said the committee would evaluate the bill again at the beginning of the fiscal year in light of operations in Iraq, a standard practice for the committee.