It is an effort to play a game of smoke and mirrors with the American public. The agents at the Department of Homeland Security who are on guard. the DEA agents who pick up intelligence about threats to the Nationall of them vitally contribute to our national security. but they will be treated distinctly different than our military if we adopt the approach that is included in this Defense authorization bill. I talked about the refugee crisis. Virtually none of the activities that support our humanitarian efforts in the region are considered security activities. Military commanders routinely tell us that the efforts of State. USAID. the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance are critical to our broader security efforts. This is particularly true from a counterISIL campaign. Again. those refugees who are flooding into the countries adjacent to Syria and to Iraq have to be dealt with not only on humanitarian grounds but also as potential sources of foreign fighters. That is going to require a wholeofgovernment approach. not simply using OCO to beef up our defense spending. Taken together. the Republican plan could compromise our broader campaign against ISIL and deprive significant elements of our government of the resources needed to do the job to protect the American people.
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