Letter from the President -- FY 2015 Budget Amendments

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 26, 2014

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I ask the Congress to consider the enclosed Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Budget amendments for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of State and Other International Programs (State/OIP) to fund Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). These amendments would provide $58.6 billion for DOD OCO activities, which is $20.9 billion less than the $79.4 billion placeholder for DOD OCO in the FY 2015 Budget. It would also provide $1.4 billion for State/OIP OCO activities, which is in addition to the $5.9 billion for State/OIP included in the FY 2015 Budget. Overall, these amendments would decrease the total OCO funding requested for FY 2015 by $19.5 billion.

Final decisions about the number and activities of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after December 2014 had not yet been made at the time the FY 2015 Budget was submitted. As a result, the Budget included a placeholder for DOD FY 2015 OCO funding equivalent to the amount requested in the FY 2014 Budget. The Administration noted in the FY 2015 Budget that after determining required force levels in Afghanistan, a Budget amendment updating the OCO request would be submitted to the Congress. The enclosed amendments include the necessary updates to the OCO request in order to fund military operations in Afghanistan, a significant portion of the U.S. military presence around the Middle East, the Administration's proposed Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund and European Reassurance Initiative, and State/OIP peacekeeping costs in the Central African Republic.

The details of these amendments are set forth in the enclosed letter from the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA