House approves defense bill, keeps Obama’s war powers

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House voted convincingly Wednesday to approve a $602 billion defense policy bill after rejecting attempts by Democrats to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to repeal the war powers President Barack Obama relies on to fight the Islamic State.

The legislation, which authorizes military spending for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, seeks to halt a decline in the combat readiness of the U.S. armed forces by purchasing more weapons and prohibiting further cuts in troop levels. But in a 17-page statement on the policy bill, the White House detailed its opposition to numerous provisions and said Obama would veto the legislation.

The bill, approved 277147, must be reconciled with a version the Senate is expected to consider by month’s end.

Republicans shot down an amendment by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to strike parts of the bill that renew a longstanding ban on moving Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. The embargo has kept Obama from fulfilling a campaign vow to shutter the facility.

The House soundly defeated an amendment authored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., to revoke a 2001 authorization that Congress gave President George W. Bush to attack any countries or groups involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama is relying on that nearly 15-yearold authority to send U.S. troops into combat against the Islamic State. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Lee’s amendment would “unilaterally end the fight” against the Islamic State.

The bill included a provision that Democrats said would overturn an executive order issued by Obama that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called the measure “taxpayerfunded discrimination against LGBT individuals.”