House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has said the Defense Department’s overseas contingency operations fund is in need of more funding, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.
Colin Clark writes Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the proposed $582.7 billion defense budget to be released next week as part of President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget request would allocate $524 billion for the base budget and approximately $59 billion to OCO.
“To cover that minimum level of funding, $23 billion of the OCO adjustment would support base requirements, and an additional amount of OCO would fund current operations, the precise amount of which would depend on the world security situation and U.S. deployments,” Thornberry wrote in a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.).
Joe Gould also reports for Defense News that Thornberry said at a press conference Monday that the OCO funds needed for 2016 would be based on military operations.
The House committee chair also noted at a National Press Club event last month that he anticipates a reduction in DoD’s base budget once the White House releases its FY 2017 budget request on Feb. 9, Gould reports.
