After Budget Vote, Turner Spikes Football

WASHINGTON — The House defense hawk who spearheaded efforts to secure more military funding wasted little time spiking the football after the chamber approved a Republican-crafted 2016 budget resolution.

"Our effort to make certain that the defense and the security of the American people came first was successful," the Ohio Republican said in the statement.

"I am pleased to see that the House Republican Leadership listened to the concerns raised by 70 of my colleagues in the House of Representatives and the leaders of our military and took action to fully fund our Defense Department in this year's House Republican Budget proposal," said Turner. "I have been given strong assurances that under this proposal, the Pentagon would have the ability to use the money they need."

The House-passed measure inflated the overseas contingency operations (OCO) account to $96 billion, and includes $20 billion that would not have to be offset with cuts elsewhere in the budget. The chamber shot down a separate version of the GOP budget blueprint, also offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., that would have required the $20 billion to be offset.

The vote results marked a win for the House GOP defense caucus — and a bigger win for Turner, who led the effort to convince Republican leaders and rank-and-file members to give the military more budgetary authority.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., also a HASC member, told reporters Wednesday that the additional funds would be allocated to the Pentagon within the OCO account, but be treated like base budget dollars.

"We're going to change the way it's used," Hunter said. "It's OCO but it's not going to be OCO."

Turner began his persuasion effort earlier this month, leading a letter from the 70 GOP hawks to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

In it, Turner thanked Boehner for his longtime support of the military and asking him to ensure the budget resolution gave the Pentagon $561 billion or more.

"Seventy individual members have made it clear that a budget that fails to fully fund defense will not pass the House of Representatives," Turner said in a recent statement about that letter.

"Every member who signed this letter was unwavering in their commitment to vote against a budget resolution that fails to fully fund national defense at or above the $561 billion identified by the president in his budget request," he said.

A Senate version of the budget resolution expected to receive a final simple majority vote late Thursday night or early Friday morning contains a provision for an $89 billion war fund, though hawks must kill another provision in that bill requiring a 60-vote threshold to surpass the administration's OCO level.

The Obama administration had requested $534.3 billion, and $50.9 billion in war funds, for the Defense Department, a total of $585.3 billion.

The House-passed budget resolution proposes $568 billion in base and war budgetary authority.

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