Congress and the Pentagon are at odds over a legislative requirement to establish a joint military task force based in the Pacific as a potential counter to China, The Washington Times reports.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed last year included a provision that instructed Indo-Pacific Command to establish a joint force headquarters to serve as operational command of a joint task force in the region, with a deadline of October 2024. The Pentagon was also required to issue a report to Congress about these plans by June 2023.
However, legislators have yet to receive the report, and the Pentagon established Joint Task Force-Micronesia, which has come under fire from critics for falling well short of what was required.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party first raised concerns about the issue in a report last May, and the panel’s chairman, Rep. Michael Gallagher, R-Wis., criticized the Pentagon’s failure to meet deadlines in a statement to the Times.
“The Pentagon’s delay in delivering a statutorily mandated plan for how it will implement the fiscal year 2023 NDAA’s requirement for a joint force headquarters in the Indo-Pacific does not inspire confidence,” Gallagher said.
“We need a permanent joint task force or joint force headquarters that is responsible for the operational employment of forces in the western Pacific; it needs to be at the four-star level; and it needs to include military staff from key allies like Australia and Japan,” he added.
Theodore Bunker | editorial.bunker@newsmax.com
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/congress-pentagon-joint-task-force/2023/12/21/id/1146828
