Defense bill compromise would authorize two years of training Syrian rebels

Congress will give President Obama full permission to train and equip Syrian rebels in their fight against Islamic State terrorists, under a deal negotiators announced Tuesday on the annual defense policy bill.

The deal also preserves the ban on bringing detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S., ending President Obama’s last best chance to change the law and set the controversial prison on a path toward closure.

Congress had previously given short-term permission to train Syrian rebels, but the new bill allows the president to move forward with his plans for the rest of his time in office. A senior House staffer involved in the negotiations said they had refined their earlier instructions now that that Defense Department officials know their mission better.

“We didn’t know details on countries, types of facilities, all of those things were still in preliminary negotiations,” the senior House staffer said. “Now we’re a little bit further down the road, we have a little bit more knowledge about what those authorities needed to be.”

The staffer said they have not added any new countries and the authorization only applies to Syria.

The defense bill will likely be up for a vote in the House later this week and on the Senate floor next week. Tuesday’s deal was the result of closed-door negotiations, and leaders said they would not allow a chance for floor amendments, giving lawmakers a take-it-or-leave-it choice.

Deemed must-pass legislation, the bill authorizes $521 billion for defense operations in 2015.

The bill dodged a number of controversial issues, putting off big decisions about increasing service members’ health care costs and adjusting their housing allowances. Staffers said the bill will make small cuts to both programs, but will wait until a commission finishes its evaluation of personnel programs next year before attempting major reforms.

“We’re not sending the message that we’re not going to address the problem, we’re sending a message that we understand the problem, but we’re not trying to get a permanent fix now ahead of the commission coming in,” a senior Senate staffer said.

The deal didn’t please President Obama. White House press secretary Josh Earnest accused Congress of meddling too deeply in military affairs, and said it was “disappointing” that lawmakers punted on the budget changes, which he said civilian and military leaders at the Pentagon had requested.

“Time and time again, we see members of Congress refuse to go along with them,” Mr. Earnest said. “I don’t know if you could do more to micromanage the Pentagon than to refuse to include the budgetary reforms that our civilian and military leadership believe are critically important to the military being able to do their job.”

Tuesday’s deal also rejects Mr. Obama’s call to loosen restrictions on transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

Senate Democrats had proposed allowing detainees to come to the U.S. for emergency, life-saving medical treatment, but that was left out of the final negotiations. Instead, the bill maintains the ban on all transfers to the U.S.

Mr. Obama will likely object to provisions in the bill that would limit his ability to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, although he didn’t indicate whether it was a deal-breaker, his spokesman said.

The bill does make some reforms to how sexual assaults are handled in the military, including many from a bill sponsored by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, that passed the Senate earlier this year.

The changes would give victims of military sexual assault some say as to whether their case was heard in civilian court or at a military trial, initiate a confidential review of discharges for victims of sexual trauma and eliminate the “good soldier defense,” which allows alleged attackers to avoid charges by showcasing a positive military record in court.

Negotiators rejected a proposal from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat, that would allow military lawyers, not commanders, to decide which cases to prosecute.

Ms. Gillibrand said, since amendments won’t be allowed to the defense bill, she’ll seek a vote on her proposal as a standalone bill.