• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

  • Policy Issues
    • Fact Sheets
    • Countries
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Non-Proliferation
    • Nuclear Security
    • Biological & Chemical Weapons
    • Defense Spending
    • Missile Defense
    • No First Use
  • Nukes of Hazard
    • Podcast
    • Blog
      • Next Up In Arms Control
    • Videos
  • Join Us
  • Press
  • About
    • Staff
    • Boards & Experts
    • Jobs & Internships
    • Financials and Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Search
You are here: Home / Security Spending / Pentagon Budget / Press & In the News on Pentagon Budget / Eliminate Slush Funds & Wish Lists

March 7, 2014

Eliminate Slush Funds & Wish Lists

Washington DC – March 7, 2014 – Press Release – The President’s Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Request comes complete with a slush fund and wish lists.

“The rationale for our Pentagon spending should be our strategic vision and genuine national security needs, not wish lists and a slush fund packed with pork,” said Lt. General (USA ret.) Robert Gard, chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “Our national security can be ensured within the funding levels established by current laws. Officials must be willing to make responsible choices in defense program funding rather than adding supplementary wish lists and packing the oversea contingency fund with expenditures unrelated to military operations in Afghanistan.”

“Fundamentally, this slush fund and wish list are an attempt to exceed the Murray-Ryan budget caps and funnel more money into the Pentagon,” noted Executive Director John Isaacs, a 35-year veteran of Capitol Hill politics and budget fights.

In the FY15 Budget Request, the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget is tentatively slated at nearly $80 billion. OCO was originally intended to cover expenditures for fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and it is exempt from spending caps and sequestration provisions.

“The OCO budget was intended to support our troops in their combat missions but has since become a Pentagon slush fund for projects that exceed limits imposed by law,” added Lt. General Gard. “With the war in Iraq over and the war in Afghanistan winding down, the OCO budget should be decreasing to zero; but the FY15 OCO funding request is about equal to the FY14 ask, when we had a much more substantial troop presence in Afghanistan.”

In addition to the President’s budget request, the Pentagon also sent Congress “unfunded priority lists” totaling $26 billion. During his tenure, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped the submission of such lists.

“These unfunded priority lists are essentially the Pentagon’s letter to potential Congressional supporters,” added Lt. General Gard. “If they contain strategic priorities, civilian leaders within the Pentagon should integrate them into the base budget, eliminating those of lower priority. Strategy should dictate military spending, not politics and wish lists.”

Lt. General Gard and other experts are available for bookings by contacting James Lewis at 202.546.0795 X2113.

####The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a Washington-based non-profit think tank working to reduce the number of nuclear weapons stockpiled across the globe, increase international nonproliferation programs targeted at preventing the further proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism, redirect U.S. military spending to address 21st century security threats and halt the proliferation of biological and chemical weapons. www.armscontrolcenter.org

Posted in: Press & In the News on Pentagon Budget, Press Releases

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • The Future of Arms Control: 2023 Annual Conference September 20, 2023
  • The Evolving Cyber-Based Threat: The Need for International Regulations to Avoid ‘Accidental’ Conflicts September 12, 2023
  • 전문가들 “김정은 방러, 전방위 군사 협력 현실화…중국 셈법 복잡” September 12, 2023
  • North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to meet with Vladimir Putin as Russia seeks closer military ties, more support for Ukraine war September 5, 2023
  • Biological threats have evolved for the worse, and we are not prepared September 1, 2023

Footer

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

820 1st Street NE, Suite LL-180
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: 202.546.0795

Issues

  • Fact Sheets
  • Countries
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Non-Proliferation
  • Nuclear Security
  • Defense Spending
  • Biological and Chemical Weapons
  • Missile Defense
  • No First Use

Countries

  • China
  • France
  • India and Pakistan
  • Iran
  • Israel
  • North Korea
  • Russia
  • United Kingdom

Explore

  • Nukes of Hazard blog
  • Nukes of Hazard podcast
  • Nukes of Hazard videos
  • Front and Center
  • Fact Sheets

About

  • About
  • Meet the Staff
  • Boards & Experts
  • Press
  • Jobs & Internships
  • Financials and Annual Reports
  • Contact Us
  • Council for a Livable World
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

© 2023 Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Privacy Policy

Charity Navigator GuideStar Seal of Transparency