By Walter Pincus

The Pentagon has steadily tightened its grip over U.S. aid and foreign policy in recent years. Now, the Senate Armed Services Committee is trying to pry it loose.

In its lengthy June report accompanying the 2008 Defense Authorization bill, the Senate panel sheds light on the workings of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), a little-known Pentagon group that is central to the Defense Department’s forays into foreign assistance. Aware that the Defense Department’s share of U.S. foreign aid has grown from 7 percent to 20 percent over the past few years, the Armed Services panel cut one-third of the DSCA’s requested $673.4 million program budget in the authorization bill, according to the report. Among other things, the DSCA manages $12 billion in foreign military sales each year, has 900 security assistance personnel in 102 countries, supervises 14,000 international military students annually and spends $50 million in humanitarian aid.

The DSCA also handles Section 1206 funds, whose “Global Train and Equip” programs are designed “to build the capacity of partner nations supporting the global war on terrorism operations,” according to the budget that the DSCA submitted to Congress in February. With State Department concurrence, those funds are used to instruct and supply other countries’ forces to support military or stability operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to the committee.

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