Source: CBO letter to Harry Reid
Previous blog entry on the OCO:
The Magical $1 Trillion - Aug 4th, 2011
A Step Backward, or More to Go? provides information on the 'slush fund' that is the OCO (the 'Overseas Contingency Operations') and the funding request for the upcoming fiscal year:
"The FY15 OCO request for DoD is $58.6 billion, 31% less than the FY14 enacted amount. As part of two newly requested funds for counterterrorism and reassuring European allies given the Ukraine crisis, the request also includes an additional $1.4 billion in OCO funding for State, which adds to State’s previously submitted $5.9 billion OCO request for a total of $7.3 billion in FY15.
The 31% drop puts the decline in OCO funding back on the pace of the FY13 and FY12 OCO budgets, which dropped by 29% and 28% from the prior year, respectively, after only a 2% drop from FY13 to FY14..."
And, as surmised/predicted back in 2011, the OCO has turned out to be a major 'slush fund' that keeps on giving: "...Although OCO funding is dropping significantly again, it is still not declining as quickly as troop levels in Afghanistan are being reduced. In FY15, troop strength in Afghanistan will drop by 56% from this year’s levels, or a rate almost twice the drop in OCO funding. As a result, troop strength will be less than a tenth of what it was six years ago, but OCO funding will still be more than a third of what it was..."
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