Panel defeats effort to reinstate State funding tied to Benghazi probe

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday struck down an amendment to a spending bill that would have undone a Republican provision to withhold some State Department funding over the terrorist attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

{mosads}The measure, offered by Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.), the panel’s top Democrat, would have eliminated a directive in the committee’s state and foreign operations bill for fiscal 2016 to reserve “15 percent of State Department’s operational funds” until the agency provides more documents related to the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans.

Speaking in favor of her amendment, Lowey said the provision is “merely latest effort in [a] Republican crusade to profit politically from the tragedy of Benghazi.”

Instead, the GOP should cut the “unlimited funding” to the House Select Committee on Benghazi, “which has existed for over a year and produced zero substantive information,” said Lowey, who also serves as the ranking member on the state and foreign operations subcommittee.

She said that instead of sparking reforms to diplomatic security, the investigation has become a “scapegoating political exercise to influential the 2016 presidential election,” alluding to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who was the top U.S. diplomat at the time of the assault.

Lowey chided Benghazi panel Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) for his “brazen” mentions of the funding move.

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the foreign operations subpanel, said the State Department’s problems responding to records requests have been “longstanding and need to be corrected immediately.”

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), who previously served as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the spending bill was the “wrong mechanism” to address Benghazi.

“It is not worthy of our Appropriations Committee to do it this way,” he said.

Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) admitted that 15 percent is a “pretty severe” amount but said the State Department “doesn’t recognize they are responsive to the American public through the Congress.”

Lowey’s amendment was defeated 30-20 in a roll-call vote.

After the vote, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking member on the Benghazi panel, blasted the move.

“Do Republicans really believe that withholding $700 million from the same State Department offices that are producing documents to Congress and the public will actually result in getting documents faster?” he said. “Of course they don’t.

“This ridiculous action will cause more delay, which Republicans will surely use as yet another excuse to continue dragging out their investigation of Secretary Clinton into the presidential election season,” Cummings added.