Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to Pentagon Officials: Clear Objectives Needed Before Congress Funds Additional Overseas Contingency Operations Budget

Press Release

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today questioned Pentagon officials about the $5 billion request to fund the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund (CTPF) during a hearing on the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget request. The budget request was met with bipartisan scrutiny due to the lack of detail and clear objectives for the fund. The CTPF was recently proposed by President Obama in his commencement speech to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on May 28.

Congresswoman Gabbard spoke specifically in response to testimony by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, who said of the need for flexibility in OCO funding requests for Iraq, "I think the president felt that we know we're going to be doing something. We're not certain what it is.… But it's impossible for us to predict exactly right now what it might be."

"Mr. Work, you made a comment earlier that struck me, about the need for flexibility and funding for Iraq. It is your and the administration's position that it is agreed that we must do something but we're not sure what. I think that assumption is what is troubling," Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq veteran, said in the hearing.

"It should not be a given as we look at the different conflicts that are occurring, whether it be in Iraq or in other places, that we assume that we must do "something.' Sometimes the answer to that question is what is in the best interests of the United States and the American people. The answer may be to not take action in that particular situation. That assumption that we must do something, particularly in Iraq, is where many [members of Congress] are concerned about writing this kind of blank check to fund that "something' if that "something' is not the right course of action to take."

In response to proposed U.S. involvement in Syria and Iraq, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has repeatedly called for the administration to define a clear objective before committing U.S. resources or troops in a foreign conflict.

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