CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– DEFENSE
May 22, 2008 – 10:17 p.m.
House Defies White House Veto Threat, Passes Defense Authorization Bill
By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff
The House passed a $601.4 billion defense authorization bill Thursday, brushing aside a White House threat to veto the massive bill.
Before passing the bill (
The White House also promised a veto over myriad other issues in the bill, such as missile defense spending and an attempt to nullify President Bush’s executive order directing agencies to ignore “earmarks,” or lawmakers’ projects, that are not spelled out in bill text.
Democrats, frustrated at their inability to force a shift in war policy, were not about to allow the president, without congressional input, to write an agreement with Iraq that will affect the next president and Congress.
“We know what happens when we give this president a blank check. It always goes badly,” said Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash. “They will tie the hands of the nation into a knot if we let them.”
The bill would authorize defense programs at the Pentagon and Energy Department for fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1. It would include authorization of $70 billion for several months of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and for a 3.9 percent pay raise for U.S. military personnel.
In June, Senate leaders hope to take up their version of the measure (
The authorized money would be appropriated in separate legislation, making it easier for the president to consider a veto of the bill.
Key Provisions
The administration opposed amendments that it says would infringe on its prerogatives as the United States and Iraq negotiate a bilateral legal framework for U.S. troop operations after this year.
Adopted by voice vote as part of a package of amendments, a measure by Democrats John Yarmuth of Kentucky and Ron Klein of Florida would make it U.S. policy that any U.S.-Iraqi agreement mandate that Iraq pay for certain costs of the U.S. military presence there. The White House said that contravenes the president’s constitutional discretion to conduct diplomacy.“Congress cannot by statute establish the policy of the United States with regard to such negotiations in advance,” the White House said.
The House also adopted, 234-183, an amendment by Barbara Lee , D-Calif., to require congressional authorization for any agreement obligating the U.S. military to defend Iraq.
The Iraqi parliament is expected to ratify the agreement, and Lee said it is only right that U.S. legislators do the same.
House Defies White House Veto Threat, Passes Defense Authorization Bill
“If prior review and approval is good enough for the Iraqi parliament, it is good enough for the U.S. Congress,” Lee said.
Another veto target was an amendment by Rush D. Holt , D-N.J., and Ellen O. Tauscher , D-Calif., to require videotaping of interrogations of detainees such as suspected terrorists and insurgents. The amendment was adopted, 218-192.
The White House also promised a veto over an amendment by David E. Price , D-N.C., adopted, 240-168, to bar the use of contractors as interrogators.
Other provisions in the bill that drew veto threats include ones that would:
• Revoke the base closure law and block the shuttering of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., unless the Defense Department provides certain information about the plan for relocating the hospital’s services;
• Bar until Oct. 1, 2011, any public-private competitions for the possible outsourcing of jobs performed by Defense Department civilians;
• Hold as inapplicable to the bill a presidential order to U.S. agencies to disregard earmarks listed in committee reports;
• Ban the procurement of products from a foreign company that is alleged to have received illegal subsidies from its government, or other provisions that would restrict the Pentagon’s ability to procure goods and services from global sources;
• Apply Davis-Bacon Act prevailing-wage requirements to military construction projects in Guam; and
• Authorize some $700 million less than the administration requested for missile defense programs, including authorizing less spending than requested for the anti-missile system planned for deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The White House opposed but did not threaten a veto over a bevy of other provisions in the bill, including authorization for ships and planes not requested by the administration as well as the House’s imminent rejection of $1.2 billion in new premiums, deductibles and drug co-payments for participants in the military’s Tricare health care network.
Other Amendments
During floor consideration, the House also:
House Defies White House Veto Threat, Passes Defense Authorization Bill
• Rejected, 186-229, an amendment by Trent Franks , R-Ariz., that would have restored the missile defense authorizations and direct the funds toward medium-range anti-missile systems, rather than the European system or programs aimed at intercepting intercontinental missiles. It would have left it to the Pentagon to pay for the programs by shifting the money from other military research programs.
• Rejected, 122-292, a proposal by John F. Tierney , D-Mass., that would have cut $966 million from the missile defense programs and moved it to a variety of other military initiatives. Democratic leaders of the Armed Services Committee, including Ellen O. Tauscher of California, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, opposed Tierney’s amendment as going too far.
• Rejected, 128-287, an amendment by Todd Akin , R-Mo., to restore $193 million of the $200 million in proposed cuts to the Army’s modernization program, the Future Combat Systems. Akin would have shifted the money from military research, personnel and health care accounts.
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