Congressional leaders on Oct. 20 signed the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act and sent it President Barack Obama, who has 10 days to veto the bill as he has promised to do.
The $604 billion NDAA contains the exact amount of funding Obama requested, as well as reforms to military compensation and acquisition supported by the administration. However, the bill has become a battleground where Republicans and Democrats are waging a larger fight about raising mandatory spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
The NDAA skirts the law by including an extra $38 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations account not subject to the spending limits, a move supported by fiscally conservative Republicans who do not want to raise the caps for other parts of the discretionary spending. Democrats argue, however, that other parts of the domestic budget are in dire need of relief.
“I recognize that the president wants to make a point about spending, but there are ways to do that without putting our troops in the middle,” Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said during the Tuesday evening enrollment ceremony.
The chairmen of Senate and House armed services committees implored the president to sign the NDAA and to fight the OCO mechanism on the appropriations bills.
“The president’s basic complaint is he wants to spend more money on domestic programs. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), IRS (Internal Revenue Service), whatever. We can’t do that in a defense authorization bill,” said HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) during an early morning appearance at the Brookings Institute. “I might agree on some of those other things that we ought to spend money on, but we can’t fix it in this bill.”
SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it would be “misguided and dangerous” to veto the bill.
During a news conference this afternoon, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Defense Secretary Ashton Carter supports Obama’s plan to veto the bill.
The House passed the NDAA earlier this month in a 270-156 vote, enough to sustain a presidential veto. The Senate’s 70-27 vote in favor of the bill was more bipartisan, but Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he will be able to shore up the support needed to sustain a veto if necessary.