The fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act will soon be headed to president’s desk, but now the bigger question is whether President Barack Obama will make good on his threat to veto it.
In a procedural “cloture” vote that set up final passage of the bill later this week, senators on Tuesday voted 73-26 to advance the NDAA conference report. Because a cloture vote requires 60 votes in favor of moving legislation forward, this was seen as Democrats chance to block it in a Senate where Republican’s hold only a 54-person majority.
At issue is a $38 billion increase to wartime spending that allows defense to be funded at higher levels than would be permitted under the Budget Control Act of 2011. Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing to raise the spending caps for all discretionary spending, while Republicans have opted to use the Overseas Contingency Operations account—which is not subject to the Budget Control Act–as a loophole for military spending.
The current 73 votes in favor of the bill would be enough to override a veto, but before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that regardless of how Democrats voted on the bill on Tuesday, they will be ready to back Obama when the time comes.
“I want everyone to know that Democrats who voted for this in the past, not all of them will vote the same way this time,” he said. “But my Democrats are Democrats [and] have stated without any question that if it comes time to sustain a presidential veto, that will be done.”
The House voted 270-156 to pass the NDAA conference report, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed by the Republicans to override a presidential veto.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted Obama in a GOP press conference after the vote.
“It’s become unfortunately clear that the president of the United States is more concerned about a budgetary and appropriations and funding issue than he is about the welfare and benefit of the men and women that serve this country,” he said.