NDAA to limit Hegseth's travel budget unless unedited video of boat strikes in Caribbean is released
A quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget will be withheld unless the Pentagon releases “video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command”
The National Defense Authorization Act will limit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget unless unedited video of military strikes on boats in the Caribbean is released to the House and Senate Armed Services committees.
A quarter of Hegseth's travel budget will be withheld unless the Defense Department provides legislators with “video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command,” CNN reported Monday.
The provision follows two strikes on Sept. 2 on alleged drug-smuggling boats, where survivors were killed in the second strike.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN on Monday when asked if the video footage should be released, “I think the Armed Services Committee is doing oversight on this, and I’m sure that they, working with the Pentagon, will make sure that they get all the facts and information about those raids.”
Thune also indicated that he was unaware of the provision in the NDAA. When asked why it was added to the bill, Thune said, “I’ll find out.”
President Trump said last week that his administration would “certainly” release video of the Sept. 2 follow-up strike “no problem,” while Hegseth on Saturday said that officials were “reviewing” whether to release the footage.
“We’ve got operators out there doing this right now, so whatever we were to decide to release we’d have to be very responsible about it,” Hegseth said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.
The bill puts additional stipulations on Hegseth’s travel budget, including a written report on the “lessons learned” from the war in Ukraine.