The GOP chairman of the House Armed Services committee is reportedly ready to defy the Pentagon chief's plea to restore $18 billion in ISIS war funding to the annual budget – declaring the money is needed to turn the military's "readiness crisis around."
Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry's committee budget maneuver means war money will run out mid-2017, leaving the next president and Congress to strike a new funding deal or risk current operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan,
Stars and Stripes reports.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in Germany on Monday, denounced the committee's plan to take money out of the wartime funding account "in wartime" as "objectionable on the face of it," Stars and Stripes reports.
He also argued the move undermines the spending deal passed by Congress that the Pentagon hoped would keep the defense budget stable for two years, the newspaper reports.
Thornberry was unmoved.
"What's objectionable is cutting the military well below levels anyone thinks is wise, denying our troops their pay raise for three years in a row, forcing them to live in crumbling barracks or work in hangars that have literally been condemned," Thornberry said in a statement, Stars and Stripes reports.
"I am determined to turn our readiness crisis around, even if I have to do it over the secretary's objections."
According to Stars and Stripes, Thornberry and other defense hawks have settled on using the war funds as a way to bolster the military and get around caps on defense and other federal spending negotiated in the fall by Republicans and Democrats, Stars and Stripes reports.
Last week, Carter called the budget maneuver "deeply troubling and flawed" and a "gamble" during testimony before the Senate, Stars and Stripes reports.
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