Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services committees, told MS NOW that the Pentagon has declined to answer repeated requests from congressional oversight committees for the cost of U.S. military operations in Venezuela and the Caribbean.
Smith said Democrats estimate that the price tag is in the “$800 million range” for the boats strikes in the Caribbean that have killed more than 100 people and a U.S. military buildup in the region that began in August. One Democratic lawmaker and a senior Democratic Hill aide pegged the cost of the operation to arrest former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at $500 million. Together, those operations would be nearing the $1 billion range if Democratic estimates are accurate.
Smith vowed to continue to push for the exact cost of the operations.
“We can’t get a clear answer on that,” he said. The Pentagon “mostly just dismisses it saying it isn’t costing anything. Our troops and equipment have to be somewhere and they just happen to be off the coast of Venezuela blowing up some small boats. We are pressing for a clear answer.”
Reed accused the administration of breaking the law by failing to provide information to Congress. “The administration’s tradition of stonewalling and denying Congress information that is legally required continues,” Reed said. “It’s a pattern of lawlessness that the Trump Administration seems to excel at, and reduces confidence in the Pentagon’s ability to manage its funds and remain accountable to the American people.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said the Defense Department has been providing data to Congress. “This is false,” Wilson said. “The Department has provided the relevant committees with data throughout its more than two dozen engagements on these operations.”
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The Pentagon did not respond to MS NOW’s request to share the numbers it says it has provided to Congress.
President Donald Trump has said he plans to keep large numbers of U.S. forces off Venezuela as a way to pressure the Maduro allies who now lead Venezuela to do as he wishes. Trump says he plans to take personal control of Venezuela’s oil industry and argued that it will pay the cost of U.S. military operations. But oil industry experts told MS NOW that it will take $60 billion in investment and several years of repairs for Venezuela’s dilapidated oil apparatus to produce large amounts of revenue. Oil industry executives expressed hesitation to invest in the country in a White House meeting with Trump last week. After the CEO of Exxon said in the meeting that Venezuela was “uninvestable,” Trump threatened the firm, saying he was “inclined to keep Exxon out” of the country, which caused the firm’s stock to temporarily drop. The Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., did not respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment.
David Rohde
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News. Recommended
