The House on Thursday passed the conference report of the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, paving the way for a Senate vote next week.
However, even if the NDAA survives a vote in the Senate, President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any defense bill that exceeds the spending caps mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The bill, passed 270-156, fell 20 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
The 
conference report provides $515 billion in base budget. The Overseas Contingency Operations account, which is not subject to the BCA caps, was authorized $89 billion, or $38 billion more than in the president’s budget request.
Obama is pushing for a “grand bargain” deal that will lift spending caps for the entire discretionary budget, including defense, and Senate Democrats have filibustered appropriations bills in an attempt to force Republicans to the negotiating table. Most recently, Democrats on Thursday afternoon blocked the appropriations bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“I hope we don’t see this kind of stunt on the defense authorization bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after the vote. He and outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) began staff-level budget talks with the White House yesterday, he added.
The Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have also been meeting with Obama on budget matters, they said in a joint press conference on Thursday. The priority is getting a budget deal that equally raises the spending caps for defense and nondefense as soon as possible, Reid said.
After the NDAA passed, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, criticized Obama’s veto threat.
“This is a strong, bipartisan bill that authorizes pay and benefits for our troops and their families, and offers our men and women in uniform the authorities and support they need to continue defending the country. It also includes landmark reforms that add options to military retirement and improves the way the Pentagon and buys goods and services,” he said in a statement. “The only redline the President is willing to enforce is vetoing the bill that pays or troops. Is that the legacy he really seeks?”