WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The State Department says it's struggling to cover the costs of its mushrooming role in Iraq as the last U.S. combat troops prepare to leave the country.
Since the State Department planned the transition more than two years ago, costs have soared and Congress cut the department's Iraq request in the 2010 supplemental appropriation President Barack Obama signed last month, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
For fiscal 2011, the Senate Appropriations Committee and a House subcommittee have cut the administration's $1.8 billion request for fiscal 2011 operations in Iraq.
The State Department is to take over all police training from coalition forces in September and wants to replace 16 provincial teams with five consular offices outside Baghdad. The department also plans for its owned armed force to provide protection for civilians currently provided by the U.S. military, tripling the current 2,700 security contractors and reinforcing facilities to be used by diplomats and police trainers to make them safer.
Gen. Ray Odierno, outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and other U.S. officials have urged lawmakers to reconsider the spending cuts, saying they could pose security risks.
"We can't spread ourselves so thin that we don't have the capacity to do the job in the places where we put people," Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew said. "If we don't put people in a place where they have mobility, where they can go out and meet with the people and implement their programs, there's very little argument for being in the place we send them."
The State Department has suggested it needs up to $400 million more than its initial request but winning approval appears unlikely, the Post said.
"They need a dose of fiscal reality," a Senate aide told the Post. "If they miscalculated by hundreds of millions of dollars, they need to tell us where they propose to find the money. It's not going to come from (funds allotted to) Afghanistan or Haiti.
