White House Threatens to Veto NDAA

The White House has issued a warning in anticipation of the House vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), threatening to veto the bill because of the billions of war funds shifted to support unrequested base Pentagon programs.

In a statement of administration policy issued Monday night, the Administration called the bill a “dangerous” approach.

“The Administration strongly objects to the bill's proposal to substitute $18 billion of the Department's OCO request with $18 billion of unsustainable base budget programs that do not reflect the Department's highest joint priorities,” the memo states. “This approach creates a hollow force structure and risks the loss of funding for critical overseas contingency operations.”

The memo also points out that “the bill's funding approach attempts to unravel the dollar-for-dollar balance of defense and non-defense funding increases provided by the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2015, threatening future steps needed to reverse over $100 billion of future sequestration cuts to DOD.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version of the 2017 defense policy bill last week, with their bill reflecting the President's budget request and rejecting the House’s funding approach.

“If the President were presented with H.R. 4909, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill,” reads the memo.