U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said he cast his vote today against the fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending bill.
“While this bill funds a number of important priorities, I could not support it because it increases spending by using the [Overseas Contingency Operations] slush fund without appropriately offsetting those increases in other places,” said Corker. “Every day that goes by, our fiscal situation becomes more of a threat to our country’s national security.”
The fiscal year 2017 omnibus spending bill designates $104 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), exceeding the recommended amount agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 by $30 billion
In his statement, Corker said the OCO is intended to provide emergency funding for military missions overseas but has been repeatedly abused to fund normal operations at the Departments of Defense and State in order to avoid exceeding statutory spending caps.