Obama signs stopgap spending bill that averts shutdown

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday that he would try to avoid a shutdown and that he is open to working with Democrats to do so.

President Obama will veto the annual defense policy bill, the White House said Wednesday as it escalated a clash over spending into a major war-time deadlock that threatens everything from troops’ pay raises to warship building plans.

The bill bans torture, stating that interrogation techniques must abide by the Army Field Manual.

The Senate and House Armed Services committees have reconciled their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for the full House to consider Pentagon spending later this week. “If the administration complains about the provisions on Guantanamo, it’s their fault because they never came forward with a plan, that we probably could’ve supported, to get rid of this issue”.

The Senate and House acted pragmatically to fund the government at current levels beyond Thursday’s start of the new fiscal year, and Obama signed the measure into law late Wednesday. Jack Reed, the top Democrats on the defense committees, signed the conference report of the final bill. John McCain (Ariz.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (Texas) and ranking Democrats Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) and Sen.

The Obama administration, however, wants Congress to lift federal budget caps for the Pentagon and non-defense spending, boosting the base budget.

“This bill perpetuates the existence of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, which continues to serve as propaganda for extremists and undermine our moral standing in the world”. Additionally, lawmakers offer lethal aid to Ukraine and $200 million in military training and assistance.

The House also adopted a separate resolution that defunds Planned Parenthood, but the Senate did not attach it to the spending bill.

Obama had met with McCain at the White House to address the issue, but the Republican senator said the president never followed up, despite his campaign pledge to shutter Guantanamo.

When asked by a reporter whether he would advance a debt limit bill before resigning from Congress on October 30, Boehner said: “We’ll have to see”. The legislation as it now stands includes the same restrictions on transferring prisoners out of Guantanamo that have existed since 2009, as well as an outright ban on moving detainees to countries like Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen.