President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 on Friday, with the final version of the bill keeping most of his overseas spending priorities in tact but gutting most of his spending reform ideas and priorities in the base bill.
Obama said in a statement that “I have signed this annual defense authorization legislation because it will provide vital benefits for military personnel and their families, as well as critical contingency authorities needed to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to respond to emerging needs in the face of evolving terrorist threats and emergent crises worldwide.” The bill that landed on his desk funded his European Reassurance Initiative, efforts to counter the Ebola crisis in Africa, and both funding and authorities to fight ISIL and train and equip moderate rebel groups to help in that fight.
Obama criticized Congress for yet again banning the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay into the United States in the defense bill and the FY ’15 spending bill, calling it “a national imperative” to close that detention facility.
Largely, though, Obama got everything he wanted in the Overseas Contingency Operations fund.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a statement Friday, thanked Congress for passing the bill for the 53rd consecutive year but expressed his concerns about the base budget, which Congress overhauled during its markup process.
“The fiscal year 2015 NDAA extends critical pay and benefits for our troops; strengthens our efforts to eliminate sexual assault in the military; and authorizes critical funding for operations to reinforce our NATO allies and European partners in the face of Russia’s aggression, and to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Middle East,” Hagel said. “However, I remain concerned that Congress continues to prevent the Defense Department from pursuing many cost-savings measures that are essential to fielding a ready and capable force to meet today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s threats.
“We also need more predictable budgets,” he continued in the statement. “Sequestration remains the law of the land, and if Congress allows sequestration to return in 2016, it will damage our military’s readiness and threaten our ability to execute our nation’s defense strategy. The longer we defer tough choices, the more difficult they will become down the road. Congress must partner with DoD leaders in the new year to provide our military with the budget flexibility and predictability it needs, and the resources that our men and women in uniform deserve.”