The Trump administration plans to use an anonymous $130 million donation to pay active-duty soldiers during the government shutdown, the Defense Department announced Friday.
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“The donation was made under the condition that it be used to offset the costs of salaries and benefits for members of the armed services,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN. The donation was accepted based on the “general authority to accept donations” of the department, he said.
It is a deviation from the normal procedure for financing the military, which is traditionally done from public funds approved by Congress.
The donation will be able to cover only a small part of the salaries of the approximately 1.3 million active military personnel, namely only about 100 dollars per soldier.
Members of Congress from both political camps said Friday that they had requested more information from the administration about the donation, but had yet to receive an official explanation.
Democrats have raised questions about its legality, arguing that the Pentagon's authority to accept donations only allows gifts for purposes such as funding military schools, hospitals, cemeteries or supporting wounded service members and dependents of those wounded or killed in action.
Donations are subject to additional, stricter restrictions if they come from foreign governments or organizations.
“Using anonymous donations to fund our military raises troubling questions: Are our soldiers at risk of being, quite literally, bought and paid for by foreign powers,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, the ranking member of the Senate Defense Budget Subcommittee.
Budget experts also wonder if using the donation to pay the soldiers is not a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from using funds beyond those allocated by Congress.
The law “explicitly states that private donations cannot be used to make up for a lack of approved funds. I think they can accept the donation, but they can't use it for that purpose, because the law is very clear,” said Bill Hoagland, a former Republican Senate budget adviser who is now senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
What Donald Trump said
The US president said Thursday that the $130 million donation came from “a friend of mine” whose identity he declined to reveal because he “doesn't want public recognition.”
Asked about the donor's identity and possible ties to foreign entities or interests, the White House spokeswoman directed questions to the Defense and Treasury Departments.
The Pentagon characterized the donation as an “anonymous” contribution and did not respond to questions about its intention to inform Congress about how it will be used.
The US President that his “friend” wrote a check for $130 million after calling him to express his willingness to cover “any shortfall you have in relation to the military”. The US president described the donor as a “patriot”, reports Bloomberg.
The government spent $9.8 billion on military personnel in September, according to the Treasury Department. The next troop payment is on October 29th.
“There are too many variables to estimate exactly how many employees might be paid $130 million, but at a rough estimate, it could cover about 2 percent of the workforce,” said Elaine McCusker, a former Pentagon comptroller and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Federal civilian employees and members of the military are typically not paid during a government shutdown. Still, Trump asked the Pentagon earlier this month to find funds to pay for the troops.
