Touching off a furious battle with Congress, President Obama vetoed the defense authorization bill Thursday in a dispute with Republican lawmakers over spending limits and the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
“I’m going to be sending it back to Congress, and my message to them is very simple: Let’s do this right,” Mr. Obama told reporters who were invited to the Oval Office to witness his veto. “We’re in the midst of budget discussions. Let’s have a budget that properly funds our national security as well as economic security.”
The president objects to the National Defense Authorization Act because it would increase funding for the military without simultaneously increasing spending for domestic programs under the “sequestration” budget caps. Mr. Obama also is opposed to a provision that would essentially prevent him from closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorism detention center, a goal since the start of his presidency.
Concerned Veterans for America CEO Pete Hegseth said the bill contains “significant reforms” that would have saved the Pentagon tens of billions dollars over the coming years and expanded retirement benefits for more than 80 percent of active-duty personnel. He said Mr. Obama’s justification for the veto is absurd.
“These spending levels are completely unrelated to the NDAA,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Never before has a president vetoed a National Defense Authorization Act as a result of something that is not part of the bill.
“The president is in effect holding the NDAA hostage in order to extract a ransom from Congress in the form of higher non-defense spending,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Congress should not respond to these tactics and should hold the line on non-defense spending and protect the important reforms in the NDAA — especially considering the threat from our nation’s growing national debt. Our military and our national defense are far too important to be used as pawns in these political games.”
Republicans blasted the president’s move and said they would try to override the veto, the fifth of Mr. Obama’s presidency.
“By placing domestic politics ahead of our troops, President Obama has put America’s national security at risk,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “This indefensible veto blocks pay and vital tools for our troops while Iranian terrorists prepare to gain billions under the president’s nuclear deal. Congress should not allow this veto to stand.”
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the president is confident that Democrats in Congress will sustain the veto.
The feud has erupted at a particularly delicate moment for Mr. Obama, who last week announced that he would keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2016, breaking his promise to bring all troops home by the end of next year. Mr. Obama also has reversed course in Iraq, deploying hundreds of military advisers to deal with the threat from the Islamic State group after withdrawing all troops in 2011.
Mr. Obama repeated his objection Thursday that the bill relies on budget “gimmicks” that would allow defense spending to rise without technically violating the budget caps to which Congress and the administration agreed in 2011. He also said the measure to keep open Guantanamo would only perpetuate a notorious facility that has become one of the “premiere mechanisms” for terrorist recruitment.
“This legislation specifically impedes our ability to close Guantanamo in a way that I have repeatedly argued is counterproductive to our efforts to defeat terrorism around the world,” Mr. Obama said.
The Guantanamo Bay facility has 114 detainees remaining, and Shaker Aamer, a British national, is expected to be transferred soon. Human Rights First said 54 of the remaining detainees are cleared for transfer, and another 47 are eligible for review board hearings.
“After years of fits and starts of progress on Guantanamo, the Obama administration has finally signaled that it is willing to make closing the facility a priority,” said Human Rights First senior counsel Raha Wala. “With the veto of the defense bill, the administration and Congress have an important opportunity to negotiate a path forward to close Guantanamo.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, said the president failed in his “most sacred duty” to keep Americans safe.
“While [Islamic State] terrorists continue their brutal campaign to secure a foothold in the Middle East to launch attacks against the United States and our allies, the president is holding a defense bill hostage to extract more money for bureaucracies like the EPA and the IRS,” Mr. Blunt said. “His position is unconscionable, and it is untenable.”
Mr. Schultz said the president “takes his job as commander in chief very seriously.”
“He strives to always do what is necessary to not only defend our nation, provide for the best military in the world, but also to make sure that they have the funding and the resources that they need to do their jobs as safely as humanly possible,” Mr. Schultz said. “For those reasons, the president is not going to accept a defense authorization bill that fails to fix the harmful sequestration cuts that shortchange our troops.”
Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers. The bill passed the House by a vote of 270-156 and the Senate by a margin of 70-27.
The National Defense Authorization Act has been enacted into law every year since 1961.
The bill also would block another round of military base closings and prevent the Defense Department from exploring alternative fuels.
Four previous presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — have vetoed defense authorization bills for specific policy reasons, such as disagreement over missile defense.
Although Mr. Obama has vetoed only five bills in seven years, the White House has issued 59 veto threats this year as disputes deepen with Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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