House passes $611 billion defense bill
Lawmakers reject Obama’s proposals to close Guantanamo, military bases
The GOP-led House passed a $611 billion defense policy bill that hikes troops’ pay and prohibits closure of Guantanamo prison.
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House on Friday overwhelmingly backed a $611 billion defense policy bill that rejects a number of President Barack Obama’s key proposals for managing the nation’s vast military enterprise.
Lawmakers passed the legislative package, 375-34. The bill now goes to the Senate where a vote is expected early next week.
The bill, crafted after weeks of talks between House and Senate negotiators, prohibits Obama from following through on his longstanding campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The bill also bars the Pentagon from reducing the number of military bases even though senior U.S. defense officials said there is excess capacity, and it awards U.S. troops their largest pay raise in six years. Obama had recommended a smaller pay increase.
The bill would prevent the Pentagon from forcing thousands of California National Guard troops to repay enlistment bonuses and benefits they received a decade after they signed up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers would have to return a bonus only if a “preponderance of the evidence” shows they knew they weren’t eligible to receive the money.
Even at $611 billion, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee lamented that more money is needed in the defense budget to restock the U.S. arsenal worn down by 15 years of conflict. Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas said he is hopeful President-elect Donald Trump, who pledged during the campaign to spend more on the military, will ask Congress early next year to boost fiscal year 2017 military spending even further.
The defense legislation also authorizes a 2.1 percent pay raise for the troops — a half-percentage point higher than the Pentagon requested in its budget presentation. The Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said it’s the largest military pay increase since 2010.
The White House Office of Management and Budget objected to the larger raise. A bigger increase, the budget office said, would upset the careful balance between competitive pay and acquiring cutting-edge equipment and training.
The bill blocks the Pentagon’s planned reductions in the number of active-duty troops by prohibiting the Army from falling below 476,000 active-duty soldiers — 16,000 more than Obama’s defense budget had proposed. The bill also adds 7,000 service members to the Air Force and Marine Corps.
House and Senate negotiators dropped a House plan to shift $18 billion from the emergency wartime spending account to pay for additional weapons and combat gear the Pentagon didn’t include in its budget request. They elected instead to boost the wartime account by $3.2 billion.