This is your fiscal conservatives doing what they do best – wasting taxpayer’s money.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that its work to comply with the six congressional investigations into the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, has cost the military millions of dollars and thousands of man hours.
The Pentagon said in a letter to Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed services Committee, that Defense Department officials have participated in 50 congressional hearings, briefings and interviews about the attack.
“We continue to work fervently to address outstanding items which include a document request from the chairman of the Armed Services Committee (HASC) and six additional interviews of military personnel by HASC and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff,” wrote Elizabeth King, assistant secretary for legislative affairs.
Smith requested the estimate from the Pentagon in December. In response, he blasted the Armed Services Committee for continuing to investigate the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Smith wrote to House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), calling on him to drop the committee’s investigation.
“We must stop wasting this committee’s and our military’s scarce resources chasing a scandal that does not exist,” Smith wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.
“More than any other committee in Congress, this committee should understand the financial strain on the Department of Defense, which is being made worse by these ongoing and ridiculous investigations,” Smith said.
It does not appear that McKeon intends to abandon the investigation, however.
