In Afghanistan, a U.S. Army mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicle offloads from an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Bagram Airfield, Sept. 21, 2015.

In Afghanistan, a U.S. Army mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicle offloads from an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Bagram Airfield, Sept. 21, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Joseph Swafford

Lawmakers' Defense Spending Agreement Ignores Obama on War Fund, Guantanamo

House and Senate members agreed to military personnel and acquisition reforms, yet set up a showdown over the offshore prison and wartime supplemental funding.

For all the “big four” members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees say the $600 billion fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill accomplishes, what’s perhaps more notable is what it doesn’t do: end sequestration, solve the budget impasse over defense spending, or give President Barack Obama the legislative support he sought to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The defense spending bill that House and Senate members agreed to Tuesday evening may solve several partisan disagreements, but unless the president backs down on his veto threat, it’s as good as dead on arrival at his desk.

Members said their compromise bill includes reforms on military retirement, personnel costs, and Pentagon acquisition; strikes the right balance on controversial policy points like U.S. reliance on Russian rocket technology and Guantanamo; and provides avenues for direct lethal assistance to Ukraine and the Kurds. It even bans torture.

In the bill, members authorize $515 billion in spending for national defense and an added $89.2 billion for the Pentagon’s war chest, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, account, for a total of $604.2 billion, according to the NDAA conference report released Tuesday evening.

“It has to be considered in the backdrop of the world today….It’s a right step in the right direction,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said. “There’s one thing we didn’t do: we didn’t solve sequestration.”

“We are committed to repealing sequestration before it does further damage to our ability to serve this nation,” he said.

McCain said that he doesn’t agree with using OCO, which isn’t beholden to the budget caps, to boost Pentagon funding: “The right place to have that fight, though, is in the appropriations bill, not the authorization bill.”

While war funding has become a perennial fight, what’s new this year was Obama and McCain pledging to work together to close Guantanamo. But instead of moving toward closing the controversial facility, the bill returns to a stricter standard that would freeze the remaining population at Guantanamo for at least the next year, according to House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, D-Wash. McCain said the White House gave him no choice after failing to come forward with a plan to close Guantanamo, which he required and they promised months ago.

“We acted as we had to, without any plan or blueprint from the administration,” said McCain, who supports closing Guantanamo. “If the administration complains about the provisions on Guantanamo, it’s their fault because they never came forward with a plan, that we probably could’ve supported, to get rid of this issue.”

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded into December and avert an immediate shutdown. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, introduced the defense authorization bill in the House Tuesday evening. A vote is expected Thursday afternoon. That means the behemoth bill could be on Obama’s desk some three months earlier than the nail-biting, late passage of recent years.

Thornberry noted the conference report sets the same total funding levels for defense as Obama requested — $619 billion in discretionary base funding and the OCO war chest, save for some $7.7 billion outside the committee’s jurisdiction. But it’s how those total funds are divvied up that the White House is fighting. Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget request intentionally busted the spending caps put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011 in order to force a fix. Obama has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill if lawmakers continue to use the OCO account to skirt the caps — a mechanism administration officials call a “gimmick” and Defense Secretary Ash Carter calls a “road to nowhere.”

Lawmakers also are using the bill to push Obama into directly funding and arming foreign forces fighting the Islamic State, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russian forces in Eastern Europe. The bill authorizes $715 million for security assistance to Iraqi security forces but requires at least 25 percent of the funds be given directly to Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni fighters. Additionally, lawmakers offer lethal aid to Ukraine and $200 million in military training and assistance. The administration has been weighing that decision for months. “We provide defensive weapons to Ukraine right now, and they have nothing to counter Russian separatist tanks,” McCain said. “We authorize [direct lethal assistance] and encourage it by the administration.”

The members also would authorize $600 million to continue the embattled U.S. program to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters. The lawmakers zeroed out funds for the administration’s Counterterrorism Partnership Fund, or CTPF.None of the funds authorized for that proposal this year have been executed.

Still, the Armed Services Committee leaders all touted the bill as codifying “the most sweeping reforms in years and years,” in McCain’s words. Some of the proposed acquisition reforms have been a point of some tension with the Pentagon.

“A dysfunctional acquisition system, top-heavy headquarters staffs, and imbalances in civilian and military workforces have combined to rob our Armed Forces of their agility to quickly adjust to emerging threats and maintain our technological edge in the face of rapid change just when they need it most,” says the summary of the report.  

“In the past, no one has been held accountable for cost overruns. Now the signature of the service chiefs will be on a piece of paper,” McCain said.

Yet, the broader dispute over defense spending and the right way forward on Guantanamo split the conference, according to aides.

“They ought to pick a place, put a plan on table,” Smith said, noting administration officials told him the Guantanamo closure blueprint is imminent. “But the bill locks in place another year in which there’s no possibility whatsoever of closing Guantanamo…There’s no reason on earth we can’t hold them here.”

More than that, the bill would rescind Obama’s unilateral authority to transfer detainees and require Defense Secretary Ash Carter, to certify any moves would be in the interest of U.S. national security. The bill specifically bars prisoner transfers to Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Syria.

Knowing it’s a direct challenge to Obama’s veto threats, Thornberry implored the president to accept the bill as is. “We need to show our troops and we need to show our world that our institutions function,” he said. “I don’t think we can wait until December…so I hope we can pass this bill and the president can agree to it.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.