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Washington — Congress is aiming to withhold part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon hands over footage of the strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela.
The provision was tucked into a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual defense policy bill that has passed every year for more six decades. Lawmakers unveiled the bill that authorizes nearly $901 billion in defense spending on Sunday. The bill is expected to pass both the House and Senate with bipartisan support.
It would withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s office’s travel funds until the House and Senate Armed Services committees receive “unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command.”
The provision also requires the Pentagon to turn over overdue reports, including on lessons learned from the Ukraine war, before the funds are released.
Politico was first to report the provision, which appears more than 800 pages into the 3,086-page bill.
The requirement to release the footage follows the revelation that two survivors of an initial boat strike on Sept. 2 in the Caribbean Sea were killed in a follow-up strike. Two sources familiar with video of the strike said the two survivors were waving overheard before they were killed.
Military officials briefed a small number of lawmakers on the early September incident last week as its legality faces increasing scrutiny. Some critics have said the killing of survivors constitutes a war crime.
Some members of Congress were shown a video of the Sept. 2 operation in last week’s briefing, but the video has not been released publicly, aside from a 29-second snippet that was posted to social media by President Trump. The military has struck more than 20 alleged drug boats since early September, killing at least 87 people. The Trump administration has argued the strikes are legally justified.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would support releasing the footage.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’ll certainly release, no problem,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
But on Monday, Mr. Trump walked back the promise, saying he was comfortable with “whatever Hegseth wants to do.”
Hegseth indicated Saturday that the video may not be released, citing ongoing operations in the region.
