“Pentagon officials defended their request for $60 billion in war funds before the House Budget Committee on Thursday as lawmakers accused them of trying to avoid budget caps and congressional scrutiny,” The Hill reports.  

“The Pentagon is requesting the money for its fiscal 2015 wartime budget, the overseas contingency operations fund (OCO), but only $11 billion of the total would go toward U.S. operations in Afghanistan, which are being wound down.”  

“Lawmakers have accused the administration of seeking a “slush fund” to shift non-war expenses from the base budget into the wartime account. But Defense officials said that most of the money — $53.7 billion — would go to operations outside of Afghanistan but in support of the mission in the region.”