The House Armed Services Committee is spending Wednesday afternoon marking up the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act—a must-pass piece of legislation instructing the Pentagon how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars next year.
But even before authorizing lawmakers got to work, the stage was set for drama. On Tuesday night, the White House expressed its disapproval with the process thus far, noting concerns about Republican-proposed language entrenching prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other provisions that would keep Uncle Sam throwing money at wasteful military projects.
The Obama administration also objected to what it called spending “gimmicks” that set Pentagon funding levels above caps set by the Budget Control Act of 2011—the legislation mandating the so-called sequestration cuts. Although President Obama has said he will not sign a budget that includes those arbitrary ceilings, he has also indicated he will not approve of lifting them for the Pentagon only—something Republican lawmakers would like him to do.
Armed Services Committee chair Mac Thornberry is using the legislation to tighten Congressional control over the detainee transfer process, barring the release of prisoners to combat zones like Afghanistan. The bill would require the Secretary of Defense to certify that the country accepting the detainee will maintain control over them, and guarantee that the individual will not re-engage in combat against the United States. As with previous NDAAs, the 2015 version will keep in place restriction that bar the administration from transferring Guantanamo prisoners to facilities in the US to face trial.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Jen Freidman called the restrictions “unwarranted and burdensome,” adding that “nearly a half billion dollars per year is an unacceptable price to pay for a facility that wastes our resources, creates friction with our allies, and undermines our standing in the world.”
Another Thornberry-championed proposal opposed by the White House would allocate $682 million in continued funding for the A-10 fighter jet. The Air Force has previously said continued funding of the plane is unnecessary during a time of budget constraints, yet the jet remains a boon for many lawmakers’ constituents. But by maintaining the A-10 program, the Air Force also noted this week that it would have to send F-16s to the boneyard and delay plans to roll out the F-35.
Outside groups have lodged objections to portions of the NDAA. On Wednesday, Public Citizens took aim at a provision that delays new regulations intended to protect members of the military from predatory lenders. Lawmakers are opting to delay the regulation for one year to conduct another study that, according to Public Citizen’s President Robert Weismann, is “redundant and unnecessary.”
“It is a sign of just how indebted certain members of Congress are to corporate interests that a critical, commonsense regulation that is needed to protect our national security can be sacrificed in service to the predatory lending industry,” Weismann noted in a statement released Wednesday morning.
In the early session of the day-long markup, lawmakers on the committee approved of a series of non-controversial amendments, including one put forward by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) focused on tunnels dug by Palestinians to break the Israeli military’s crippling blockade on Gaza.
“Tunneling is a huge issue,” Rep. Lamborn said, noting that “people are trying to tunnel into Israel” and “at our southern border we have tunneling for smuggling and other purposes.”
The approved amendment establishes a joint-program between the US and Israel for the two countries to share technology to detect and defeat tunnels.
