Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Armed Forces, under guidance from the Department of Defense (DOD), have conducted the following military operations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and other small Global War on Terror (GWOT) operations like the Philippines and Djibouti that began immediately after the 9/11 attacks and continue; Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) that began in the fall of 2002 with the buildup of troops for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and continued with counter-insurgency and stability operations until 2010; Operation New Dawn (OND), a successor to OIF that began on September 1, 2010, when U.S. troops adopted an advisory and assistance role and concluded in December 2011 when all U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq (though some 13,000 combat-ready troops remain in Kuwait); Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) providing enhanced security for U.S. military bases and other homeland security that was launched in response to the attacks and continues at a modest level; and Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), authorized by the President on August 7, 2014, beginning with DOD air strikes in Iraq and Syria to "degrade and ultimately defeat" the Islamic State (IS) without deploying U.S. ground troops. On May 27, 2014, President Obama's announced that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would decrease from 33,000 to 9,800 by January 1, 2015; would halve again by January 1, 2016, to about 4,900; and be limited to an embassy presence of about 1,000 thereafter. Some unspecified number of the 60,000 U.S. troops currently providing in-theater support would remain in the region as an "enduring presence" after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In June 2014, after the announcement of troop levels for the Afghan withdrawal, the Administration replaced its earlier $79.4 billion placeholder request for DOD (submitted with the original FY2015 budget in March) with an amended war request of $58.6 billion. Including this amended DOD request with State Department/U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Veterans Administration (VA( Medical requests, the total FY2015 war request—including the new November 2014 request for OIR—totals $79.0 billion. The FY2015 Continuing Resolution ( H.J.Res. 124 / P.L. 113-164 ) sets war spending levels for this fiscal year at $95.5 billion, reflecting the FY2014 enacted level. That total is $16.5 billion above the $79.0 billion amended request that includes OIR. The continuing resolution (CR) exceeds the request primarily because DOD's FY2015 request is below the FY2014 enacted level. The CR expires on December 11, 2014, and Congress is expected to pass another CR or an Omnibus Appropriations act to set final FY2015 spending levels. At that time, Congress may consider the following war budget issues: the amount, purposes, and appropriateness of the FY2015 Department of Defense (DOD) war cost request reflecting the troop drawdown to 9,800 troops in December 2014; the utility of an Administration proposal for $5 billion for the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund (CTFP), a broadly-flexible new account intended to respond to "evolving threats" primarily through "Train and Equip" programs; whether to rely on OCO-designated funding for all DOD expenses, including paying for an "enduring presence" of some 60,000 U.S. troops in the region, and financing Afghan security forces rather than transferring some of these costs to DOD's base budget; and responding to the new November funding request of $5.5 billion for Operation Inherent Resolve, including whether to set restrictions on the use of U.S. ground forces. These defense budget issues are discussed below after a summary of the status of the FY2015 request and an accounting of cumulative and annual war funding levels for FY2001-FY2015. Under the FY2015 Continuing Resolution or CR ( H.J.Res. 124 / P.L. 113-164 ), enacted September 19, 2014, OCO-designated funding would total $95.5 billion. This total includes $85.8 billion for DOD, $21.7 billion above the amended request of $64.1 billion including OIR. After the CR expires on December 11, 2014, Congress is expected to pass either another CR or an Omnibus Appropriations Act that could adjust these levels. Since it is not clear, at this time, whether Congress will address the $5.5 billion amended request for OIR during the lame duck session and whether those funds should appropriately be allocated to Iraq, CRS tables that follow exclude that amount. The House-passed version of H.R. 4435 , the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), included $79.4 billion for DOD war funding, matching the OCO placeholder request included in the Administration's original FY2015 budget. The House NDAA also adopted an amendment that required that the Administration's war funding request meet OMB's 2010 criteria for DOD war funding that placed certain limitations on what would be considered war-related (see " War Funding and Budget Controls "). Reported on June 2, 2014, the Senate Armed Services Committee version of the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act ( S. 1970 ) did not address either the placeholder OCO request or the amended request submitted on June 14, 2014. The Senate has not taken up S. 1970 ( Table 1 ). The House passed a conference version of the NDAA, H.R. 3979 , on December 4, 2014, and the Senate is expected to consider it prior to the adjournment of the 113 th Congress. With the exception of the request for Counterterrorism Partnership Response Fund (CTPF), H.R. 3779 made minor adjustments to DOD's entire OCO-designated request. The conference bill reduces the $4.0 billion DOD request to $1.3 billion. The final NDAA will set a cap on funding levels. Although H.R. 3979 approves the $1.618 billion requested for a new Iraq Train and Equip account, it makes several revisions, including sunsetting the authority on December 31, 2016, rather than September 30, 2017. The bill endorses the Administration cost-sharing provision in which U.S. obligations are capped at 60% until Iraqi, Kurdish, and tribal security forces contribute 40% of the $1.6 billion total, in cash or in kind. The conference draft also sets a 25% cap on obligations and expenditures that would go into effect 15 days after the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State submit a specific plan identifying, to the appropriate congressional committee and the House and Senate leadership, the forces to receive assistance and the retraining and rebuilding for those forces. The plan is to include goals, concept of operations, timelines, types of training and other assistances, roles of other partners, number and roles of U.S. military personnel, and additional military support and sustainment, and other relevant details. Ninety days later, and every 30 days thereafter, the Secretary of Defense is to submit quarterly reports of any changes. Instead of the blank waiver of other laws requested, H.R. 3979 permits more limited waiver authority for the Secretary of Defense of acquisition and arms sales provisions. It also includes a more general waiver for the President if it is determined to be vital to U.S. national security, and it can be implemented only 15 days after notification to the appropriate defense committees. H.R. 3979 also continues the Continuing Resolution provision that funds training of vetted Syrian opposition forces by reprogramming from other funds. The bill also rejected the broad authorities requested, and included additional reporting requirements for both the Iraq and the Syria Train and Equip programs. The House passed H.R. 4870 , the FY2015 DOD Appropriations Act on June 20, 2014, providing OCO-designated funding of $79.4 billion, matching the Administration's placeholder request. Funding levels were set at the title level (Military Personnel, Operation and Maintenance) rather than by account, as is customary. The Senate Appropriations Committee version of H.R. 4870 provided $58.3 billion for DOD, close to the amended request of $58.6 billion; the Senate version added about $1 billion to both Operation and Maintenance and procurement accounts that was offset by halving the $4.0 billion requested for the new flexible Counterterrorism Response Program (CTRP) that would give the Administration broad discretion to provide funds to countries conducting counter-terror efforts (see Table 2 and Figure 9 ). The section below summarizes cumulative war funding by operation and agency. It also analyzes the major factors affecting annual funding levels. The tables below do not reflect the $5.5 billion budget amendment to combat the Islamic State, considered to be a new operation by the Department of Defense. That request is discussed separately in the section titled " The New Request to Counter the Islamic State ." Based on funding enacted from the 9/11 attacks through FY2014, CRS estimates a total of $1.6 trillion has been provided to the Department of Defense, the State Department and the Department of Veterans Administration for war operations, diplomatic operations and foreign aid, and medical care for Iraq and Afghan war veterans over the past 13 years of war. Allocated by operation, this $1.6 trillion total is made up of: $686 billion for Afghanistan and other counter-terror operations (OEF); $815 billion for Iraq (OIF); $27 billion for enhanced security (Operation Noble Eagle); and $81 billion in other spending designated as war funding but tangentiallyrelated to the Afghan and Iraq war ( Table 3 ).