OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: House GOP targets State Dept. funds over Benghazi emails

by Martin Matishak and Kristina Wong - 06/02/15 6:16 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: The fight between the Obama administration and House Republicans escalated on Tuesday when the GOP unveiled a spending bill that would deny certain funding to the State Department until it cooperates with the chamber’s investigation into the terrorist assault in Benghazi, Libya.

The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed State and Foreign Operations bill for fiscal 2016 “withholds 15 percent of State Department’s operational funds until requirements related to proper management of Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] and electronic communications are met,” Republicans said in a statement.

The measure makes good on a threat the House GOP raised last month to use funding as leverage to obtain documents related to Hillary Clinton’s time as the nation’s No. 1 diplomat.

{mosads}The proposed bill contains $47.8 billion in both discretionary funding and funding through the Pentagon’s war fund. The total is $1.4 billion less than the current enacted level and $6.1 billion below President Obama’s request.

The State Department would receive $15.8 billion, which the Appropriations panel said includes the full requested amount for embassy security at more than 275 diplomatic facilities overseas.

The money for embassy security would not be subject to the potential 15 percent cut.

The head of the House Select Committee on Benghazi endorsed the move to withhold certain funding from the State Department.

“The explanations and excuses for non-compliance are tired and unpersuasive,” according to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). “Regrettably it sometimes takes money to get agencies’ attention.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Benghazi panel, ripped the funding threat.

“Reducing State Department funding and personnel will only further slowdown and drag out the Republican’s taxpayer-funded political attack on Secretary Clinton,” he said in a statement.

Alec Gerlach, a spokesman for the State Department, warned a 15 percent cut would be “counterproductive” by making it harder to keep up with requests for documents from the public and members of Congress.

PENTAGON SHIPPED ANTHRAX … TO ITSELF? The Defense Department is now investigating whether live anthrax was brought into the Pentagon building itself, according to a Tuesday report from CNN.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency, its police force, is one of the agencies that received shipments of anthrax from a U.S. Army lab. That shipment now must be tested to see if it is live, CNN said.

An Army lab at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah had accidentally sent out three batches of live anthrax that were supposed to be inactive. Samples from those batches were shipped out to military and private labs in at least 12 states and three countries for research and training purposes.

Samples were sent to the states of California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Virginia and Wisconsin and abroad to South Korea, Australia and Canada.

More than 30 shipments already sent to these locations reportedly must be tested.

Only the lab in Maryland has reported actually receiving live anthrax, but Pentagon officials say they are operating as if all labs that received samples from those batches are also live.

The Pentagon has not confirmed whether any of the anthrax was brought into the building. The anthrax was meant to be used to calibrate sensors used to detect chemical or biological agents, CNN said.

HOUSE PANEL PASSES DEFENSE SPENDING BILL: The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday advanced a $579 billion bill to fund the Pentagon in fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1, reported The Hill’s Rebecca Shabad.

Republicans are proposing to circumvent budget caps that are set to return in October by boosting the Pentagon’s war fund to $88 billion, about $38 billion above President Obama’s own request. The additional funds are not offset.

During the markup Tuesday, Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) offered an amendment that would shift that extra war funding back into the base budget. Republicans, however, warned it couldn’t be done because it would violate sequestration budget ceilings.

Lawmakers acknowledge they wouldn’t need to rely on the war fund if Congress reached a new budget deal to ease sequestration spending caps next year.

“I wish with all my being that we could lift sequestration to some degree,” Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said, adding that it’s not the committee’s responsibility.

“Until the powers that be–White House, leadership in the House and Senate–until those three entities come together and reach some accommodation, some understanding, we’re bound by the Budget Control Act. I wish it were otherwise,” Rogers added.

MCCAIN RIPS VETO THREAT: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) ripped the White House for threatening to veto an annual defense policy bill.

“The [National Defense Authorization Act] is a policy bill. It does not spend a dollar. It provides the Department of Defense and our men and women in uniform with the authorities and support they need to defend the nation. It is not the place for fights over government spending,” he said Tuesday at the American Action Forum.

The bill, which could reach the Senate floor on Wednesday, authorizes $523 billion in base defense spending, but busts spending caps by boosting war funding to $89 billion.

The president has requested that Congress lift the caps and spend $551 billion for base defense spending and $51 billion in war funding.

“Holding the NDAA hostage to force that solution would be a deliberate and cynical failure to meet our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense,” McCain said.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

– Senate approves sweeping reforms to NSA spying programs

– Obama: Netanyahu undermines Israeli credibility ‘as a whole’

– Paul joins crusade to expose secret 9/11 documents

– Obama awards Medal of Honor to overlooked black, Jewish WWI soldiers

– Iran nuclear stockpile grows 20 percent amid negotiations

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Martin Matishak, mmatishak@digital-staging.thehill.com.