....Chaffetz raised a different point. He said the GAO has reported that Iraq, thanks to oil exports, had accumulated usaida budget surplus of more than $50 billion. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that Iraq sold $17 billion worth of oil products to the United States in 2011, up 39 percent from 2010.

Chaffetz asked: “Why are we pouring a lot of money into Iraq when their . . . budget is certainly in better shape than ours?”

USAID plans to spend $263 million next year to support Iraq government building and anti-corruption programs. The bulk of fiscal 2013 money for Iraq, $911 million, is in a new Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund run by the State Department to continue Pentagon programs that develop Iraqi army professionalism and logistics capabilities. State already has $850 million for FMF in fiscal 2012 money.