WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon has agreed to cut from its budget $171 million to build police stations in Iraq after demands from Congress that the Iraqi government spend its recent oil windfall on reconstruction projects.
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Iraqi employees attend the opening ceremony of a new oil refinery plant in Najaf, Iraq, on March 15.
In a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee released Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that he had heard senators' concerns "loud and clear" during hearings earlier this month. As a result, he wrote, "We will seek full funding from the government of Iraq for this purpose."
The amount is a fraction of the roughly $47 billion Congress has approved to rebuild Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But Democrats and Republicans have complained that American taxpayers are continuing to pay for reconstruction work in Iraq when crude oil prices, now nearing $120 a barrel, have left the country's U.S.-backed government reaping a budget surplus in the tens of billions of dollars.
"It's not enough, but it's an important step," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, the Armed Services Committee chairman. Levin said Gates acknowledged that "there's gonna have to be changes made," and called the Pentagon chief's actions an "important first step."
"It's a significant message to the Iraqis that there is a lot of pressure from the American people, from the Congress, to stop spending a lot of money in Iraq for things the Iraqis can pay," said Levin. He raised the issue earlier this month during hearings on the now-widely unpopular war.
Iraq budget cut by $171M after oil-profit windfall
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon has agreed to cut from its budget $171 million to build police stations in Iraq after demands from Congress that the Iraqi government spend its recent oil windfall on reconstruction projects.
art.oil.afp.gi.jpg
Iraqi employees attend the opening ceremony of a new oil refinery plant in Najaf, Iraq, on March 15.
In a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee released Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that he had heard senators' concerns "loud and clear" during hearings earlier this month. As a result, he wrote, "We will seek full funding from the government of Iraq for this purpose."
The amount is a fraction of the roughly $47 billion Congress has approved to rebuild Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But Democrats and Republicans have complained that American taxpayers are continuing to pay for reconstruction work in Iraq when crude oil prices, now nearing $120 a barrel, have left the country's U.S.-backed government reaping a budget surplus in the tens of billions of dollars.
"It's not enough, but it's an important step," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, the Armed Services Committee chairman. Levin said Gates acknowledged that "there's gonna have to be changes made," and called the Pentagon chief's actions an "important first step."
"It's a significant message to the Iraqis that there is a lot of pressure from the American people, from the Congress, to stop spending a lot of money in Iraq for things the Iraqis can pay," said Levin. He raised the issue earlier this month during hearings on the now-widely unpopular war.
