The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is calling on the White House to shut down the Pentagon’s floating pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip, calling the project designed to deliver vital humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave a “gross waste of taxpayer dollars.”
President Biden announced in March that the U.S. military would build and operate the temporary pier, officially the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS), with an initial budget of about $320 million.
“JLOTS is diverting military personnel and assets from primary missions in the highly-contested Central Command area of responsibility, where over 150 attacks on U.S. service members have occurred since October 7,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, wrote in his letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The pier has struggled to operate off the Gaza coast because of unexpected storms and rough seas that have caused some sections to break apart and float onto the beach.
The Republican lawmaker said only about 10 trucks a day moved across the pier into Gaza during its first three weeks of operation. He said it was a small fraction of the 150 trucks a day that Defense Department officials predicted would be using the U.S.-constructed causeway.
“As of June 19, [the pier] had only been operational about 10 days and had only moved 3,415 metric tons onto the beach in Gaza,” Mr. Rogers said, citing a think tank report that called the volume “negligible.”
Republican House lawmakers have already pushed through two amendments to the annual defense authorization bill now working its way through Congress to prohibit funding for the pier or for any deployments of troops for such a mission.
“I urge the administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery,” Mr. Rogers wrote.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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