The Obama administration has threatened a veto of NDAA, objecting to the GOP’s use of the emergency war fund, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, because it hamstrings the Pentagon from freely using money by preventing multiyear planning.
All but one Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, voted against ending debate on the defense appropriations bill, leaving it open to the possibility of a Democratic filibuster. The defense bill was the first of the 12 annual funding measures to reach the Senate; six have passed the House. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed to block all 12 budget bills unless Republicans are willing to meet and begin negotiations on a deal to raise the sequester caps, like they were able to do with the Bipartisan Budget Act in 2013.
But in recent weeks, Republicans have hammered Democrats for playing politics with national security.
“The idea that they would threaten to filibuster the defense authorization bill – and now, it seems like they’re backing off of that and now threatening to do that on the defense appropriations bill, which is the bill that actually pays the salaries of our troops – is just unconscionable,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday.