The Republican-dominated Congress is divided between defense hawks who hope to raise budget caps to increase defense spending, and fiscal conservatives who want to keep caps at 2010 sequestration levels to eliminate the deficit by 2025.
The Overseas Contingency Operations account is a shortcut between the two factions. This “emergency fund,” originally set up for counterterrorism efforts, doesn’t technically count as discretionary funding, and so increasing defense’s budget through OCO could satisfy the defense hawks while keeping the fiscal conservatives at bay.
In recent years, OCO has been a source of emergency aid for the refugee crisis in Syria, the rebuilding of Afghanistan and the transition of operations from the U.S. Department of Defense to the U.S. Department of State in post-conflict states. Now in the spotlight as a source of defense money, OCO stands to contribute even less to aid.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
