Pentagon May Lose Reprogramming Authority Over Wall, Smith Says

The Pentagon will be stripped of its ability to shift funds within its budget next year if it doesn’t get buy-in from the congressional defense committees for reprogramming $2.5b in defense funds for the border wall, said Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of House Armed Services Cmte.

• “We will zero out their reprogramming authority for fiscal year 2020,” Smith, D-Wash, said in an interview. “That is our position,” he said referring, to Democrats on both the Armed Services and Appropriations panel
• NOTE: The annual defense authorization bill and defense spending bill carry reprogramming authorities and instructions for the Pentagon; traditionally the Defense Department has to receive agreement to move some monies from one account to another from the leaders of armed services and appropriations in House and Senate
  • Pentagon has been tasked to move $2.5b into a counter-drug fund that President Trump wants to use to build a border wall; there’s concern in Congress that Pentagon leaders won’t formally ask for authority to take funds from other programs and put them in the counter-drug account
• “It would be a big mistake” for the Pentagon not to inform Congress, said Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the HASC
  • “It would change the dynamic between the executive and legislative branch,” Thornberry of Texas, said in an interview; he said he wanted to see how the Pentagon goes about the reperogramming before taking steps to take away the authority

To contact the reporter on this story:
Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net
Vivek Shankar