US Senate To Vote On Massive Defense Bill

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted that party members will still support President Barack Obama’s promised veto when the bill reaches the White House.

In the end, while revealing more divisions among Democrats than their leadership may like, the Senate’s actions this week may be moot – while Senate Republicans may have enough votes to override a veto, Thornberry and his Republican colleagues in the House do not.

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest repeated Wednesday that the President plans to veto the bill. “This legislation is a win for our troops, for Wyoming, for small businesses and for the country”, Enzi said.

Obama also is upset that it would make it harder to transfer suspected terror detainees out of the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he hopes to close before he leaves office. “A one year plus-up” to the special account does not provide the Pentagon “with the certainty and stability it needs when building its five-year budget”.

The Obama administration has formally threatened a veto on a House bill that would lift the federal ban on crude oil exports.

If Obama vetoes the defense bill, it will be only the fifth time that has happened in a half-century.

The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and the Reserve Officers Association have both sent letters to the president urging him to support the NDAA. The House of Representatives has already approved the measure.

The Senate Democrat caucus is said to be nearly evenly split between opposing and supporting the defense bill’s move to deliver enhanced military funding through “a supplemental war fund, known as Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, which isn’t subject to the budget caps”, although a few of them seem willing to abandon their support for the bill and line up behind Obama due to the veto threat.

“If the president vetoes the NDAA, at this time of mounting global threats, he will be prioritizing politics and process over the security of our nation and the well-being of our armed forces”, Arizona Sen. The legislation also calls for new strike fighters for the Navy and Marine Corps, presses ahead with development of a long-range bomber for the Air Force and restores authority for a next-generation missile defense program. “And yet they have the strategic advantage because we don’t have a good strategy for coping with how they use their Coast Guard right now, because we don’t want to escalate by bringing more of our Naval ships”. Also, Congress didn’t increase money for domestic agencies, too, as the president wants.

The bill authorizes a 1.3 percent pay increase for members of the military, including troops at Ft.

“There are better ways to do it … but this is the way that it was done, and this is the only bill we have to vote on”, Donnelly said.

“At a time when our nation faces significant challenges with the rise of ISIS, [Bashar] Assad’s brutality in Syria, Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, and difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s critical that we set a clear defense policy”.