Senate approves $612B-defense bill

Obama says he’ll veto it because while it contains all the money he requested, he doesn’t like the way Congress did it

WASHINGTON—Congress on Wednesday sent President Barack Obama a sweeping $612 billion defense policy bill that he has threatened to veto over an ongoing battle between Democrats and Republicans about government spending.

The Senate voted to approve the measure 70 to 27.

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

The bipartisan measure has become law every year for more than 50 years.

The House passed the bill last week, 269 to 151, with enough Democratic votes to sustain a veto.

Obama says he’ll veto it because while it contains all the money he requested, he doesn’t like the way Congress did it.

The bill increases defense spending by padding a separate warfighting account with an extra $38 billion.

Congress didn’t increase money for domestic agencies, too, as the President wants.

If the veto is sustained, Congress would be forced to revise the bill or try to settle the larger budget dispute.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the President’s desire to veto the bill is “outrageous” in the light of national security threats.

“I wish I could say it surprised me that President Obama might — for the sake of unrelated partisan games — actually contemplate vetoing a bipartisan defense bill that contains the level of funding authorization he asked for,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said it was a good bill.

Obama also is upset about provisions in the bill that would make it harder for him to transfer suspected terror detainees out of the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his plan to close it before he leaves office.

Among other things, this year’s bill provides:

a 1.3 percent pay increase to service members and a new re- tirement option for troops;

authorizes lethal assistance to Ukraine forces fighting Russian-backed rebels;

extends the ban on torture to the CIA;

authorizes the president’s request of $715 million to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State militants; and

authorizes $600 million for the beleaguered US-led program to train and equip moderate elements of the Syrian opposition force, but requires the defense secretary to get congressional approval each time he wants to use money for the program. (AP)