The NDAA institutes major military reforms and matches Obama’s budget request by increasing defense spending by $38 billion above Budget Control Act of 2011 caps. Yet, today, President Obama vetoed this key bipartisan defense authorization bill.
The NDAA has passed and been signed by presidents 53 years in a row, making it a rare display of bipartisanship. It passed the Senate this year with 70 votes, including 21 Democrats, and passed the House with 270 votes, including 37 Democrats. Because of intense pressure from the White House, many Democrats may vote to sustain President Obama’s veto.
Only four times in America’s history has a President vetoed a defense authorization bill.
This is the first time in American history a president has used America’s defense authorization bill as a hostage to coerce spending increases on unrelated programs.
This week, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain stated about the NDAA that, “What bothers us, is it’s clear the president is holding this legislation — regarding the defense of the country and the men and women who serve it — hostage to a process of budgetary procedure which the defense bill has nothing to do with.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry added, “The president’s basic complaint is he wants to spend more money on domestic programs: EPA, IRS, whatever. We can’t do that in the defense authorization bill. We cannot fix his basic problem in any defense authorization bill.”
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Congressman Brooks’ statement:
“Today, America’s Commander-in-Chief put politics above country by holding America’s military hostage in a sordid effort to coerce Congress into spending more money on programs unrelated to national defense. President Obama’s veto weakens an already bludgeoned Defense Department that is hamstrung by sequestration and laying off tens of thousands of American military personnel. It is outrageous that President Obama and the White House so willingly play politics with America’s national security.
“The NDAA strengthens retirement and pay for service members, includes a sweeping overhaul of DoD’s bloated and sluggish acquisition process, and empowers members of the armed forces to carry government-issued or personal firearms on military installations, reserve centers, or recruiting stations if it ‘is necessary as a personal or force-protection measure.’
“President Obama seeks to coerce and compel Congress to break America’s piggy bank by dramatically increasing spending on non-military, domestic programs, thus causing America to spend money we don’t have, have to borrow to get, and cannot afford to pay back. It is paradoxical that President Obama seeks to release terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo while simultaneously turning his back on the very men and women who risk their lives to protect America . . . all in order to extort more money from Congress for programs wholly unrelated to national defense.
“President Obama says he wants to keep America strong, yet he vetoes the very bill that authorizes the national defense of this nation and gives him nearly everything he has requested. It makes no sense. Never before has a Commander-in-Chief held our military hostage as leverage to accomplish a domestic political agenda. I urge President Obama to reconsider his priorities and help protect America’s security at this exceptionally dangerous time.
“While the NDAA passed by a veto-proof majority in the Senate, it fell a few votes shy of a veto-proof majority in the House. I am proud that 8 of the 9 members from the Alabama delegation supported the National Defense Authorization Act with their votes. I hope Congress can muster the additional support needed to override President Obama’s veto so America's national security will not be jeopardized for reasons unrelated to the NDAA. The dangers and stakes are too high to play political games with America’s national security.”
Congressman Brooks is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sitting on the Strategic Forces and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittees. He is the founder and co-chair of the Army Aviation Caucus.
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