It took about 18 hours for the House Armed Services Committee to pass the defense authorization bill, but that could be a breeze compared to getting it through the House itself.
Only two of HASC’s 62 members voted against the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1735), but that bipartisan support seems to be waning. Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who originally voted for the NDAA in committee, announced Wednesday that he would not vote for the bill on the House floor because it relies on Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding to offset spending caps to the base budget.
Such tactics provide short term relief to the Defense Department, but do not enable it to do long term planning, he said in a written statement released Wednesday morning. Smith urged Congress to broker a deal to repeal mandatory budget caps required under the Budget Control Act.
“I understand that finding a compromise to remove the caps has been elusive, but that does not justify the use of gimmicks to protect one part of the budget and shortchange other portions that are vitally important to the future of our country,” he said.
As the White House has made clear that it would veto a bill that would increase military spending but not other parts of the budget, “Congress is wasting time with this dead-end approach,” Smith added.
The House Democratic Caucus was briefed this morning by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, caucus chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said during a press conference. Although defense is typically an area where there is bipartisan agreement, he said Democrats were told that “this bill is the wrong bill.”
“The president has made it very clear that the bill that Republicans have put together that will be on the floor this week … is not the right way to go,” he said, adding that the budget overspends in ways that put DoD priorities at risk.
The House NDAA contains $38 billion in operations and maintenance moved from the base budget to OCO. Although Republicans control the House, fiscally conservative GOP members have opposed using wartime funding to pay for base budget expenses and could threaten passage of the authorization bill.
HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) yesterday minimized veto threats from President Barack Obama during a press conference with reporters.
“He has threatened to veto our bill pretty much every year at some stage in the process,” he said, adding that the OCO mechanism was not the preferred solution, but that it allows Congress to authorize the full amount of funding asked for by the president.