USA Today, citing a committee document from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office, reports that House Republicans are planning to spend as much as $3.3 million for the Benghazi special panel.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and the committee’s chairman, told the paper that the budget is “the high end estimate, and we expect there will be less spent as the staffing process is still ongoing, and since not all the staff came on board immediately in May.”
Members of the committee have told The Washington Times they don’t expect major work to start until after August, as both parties are still in the process of staffing up.
The House voted in May, largely along party lines, to create the panel of seven Republicans and five Democrats to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the select committee was necessary because of repeated stonewalling from the White House on other committees’ investigations into the circumstances leading up to the attack and the administration’s response.
Democrats have said there have been a significant number of hearings, investigations, and documents turned over on the matter and more of a focus should now be placed on securing similar U.S. facilities around the globe.
Four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed in the attack by Islamist terrorists. The Obama administration initially said the attack was the result of a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islam video getting out of hand.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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