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The House Just Looked Obama Right In The Eyes And Did Something They Know He’ll Hate
The House easily passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Thursday, which funds the military through fiscal year 2016. However, the bill did not contain a change requested by President Obama when he vetoed an earlier version of the bill last month.
When Obama vetoed the NDAA, he listed the current budget situation under the sequester and his desire to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility before the end of his term. Regarding the former, the president specifically mentioned $38 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations funding, which was a way to get around the sequester defense budget cap.
The budget deal worked out later in the month, which lifted sequester caps on military and domestic spending (the latter a stated goal of the president), addressed, at least in part, his first concern; but the revised NDAA left the restrictions on transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in place. It also cut $5 billion from a defense budget plan submitted by the Obama administration.
The bill enjoyed broad bi-partisan support, passing the House 370-58, which means even most House Democrats were willing to buck the president on closing Guantanamo.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., has indicated he wants to see the House version go through the Senate, without further amendments, according to the Washington Post.
“Democratic lawmakers and aides said they expect Obama will sign the revised bill, even with the Guantanamo restrictions, but the White House has not made his intentions clear,” Reuters reports.
“We’ll have to take a look at exactly what passes Congress before making a determination about what the president will sign,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. He added that the president has not ruled out using an executive order to close Guantanamo, according to Reuters.
h/t: Washington Examiner
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/the-house-just-looked-obama-right-in-the-eyes-and-did-something-they-know-hell-hate/
