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Congress seeks to kill Obama's counterterrorism fund

The Senate spending panel approved legislation to defund the president's signature proposal.
The U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, August 2, 2011. The United States is poised to step back from the brink of economic disaster on Tuesday when a bitterly fought deal to cut the budget deficit is expected to clear its final hurdles in the U.S. Senate.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst   (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR2PJWQ

WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators passed a defense spending bill June 11 that would kill President Barack Obama's signature counterterrorism training program amid criticism that it's too broad to do any good.

The Defense Department is seeking $2.1 billion for the so-called Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, which aims to facilitate partnerships and "provide the flexibility to respond to a range of terrorist threats and crisis response scenarios." Lawmakers, however, balked at funding what they consider an ill-defined program that they would have trouble properly overseeing. 

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