WASHINGTON – The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding up money to fight Ebola until the Obama administration provides details on how the military would protect American personnel sent to Africa to battle the epidemic and more specifics on the financial and logistics demands on a defense budget already stretched thin.
The administration submitted two requests totaling $1 billion on Sept. 9 and Sept. 16. The money would be “reprogrammed” from a war-time account and money that would have been spent in Afghanistan.
Oklahoma GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe is insisting on a comprehensive plan from the Pentagon on how it will protect U.S. personnel from contracting the fast-spreading and disease. The military would be interacting with health care workers administering to the stricken.
