White House issues veto threat for Senate defense bill

The White House is threatening to veto the Senate’s version of an annual defense policy bill.

The administration said it has numerous objections to the measure, including its imposition of sweeping organizational changes on the Pentagon, its restrictions on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and its cap on the size of the National Security Council.

{mosads}“If the President were presented with S. 2943, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill,” said a statement of administration policy released Tuesday by the Office of Management and Budget.

The administration previously threatened to veto the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act. In that case, the chief objection was the way the defense spending would be divvied up between the base budget and a war account, leaving the war account dry by April 2017.

The Senate version of the bill, in contrast, follows the administration’s budget request.

In Tuesday’s veto threat, the administration commended the Senate for not “relying on budgetary gimmicks that risk the safety of our service members and undercut stable planning and efficient use of taxpayer dollars.”

But the statement slammed other aspects of the bill, such as its organizational changes to the Defense Department.

“Reorganizing DOD without careful study and consideration would undermine the department’s ability to continue to carry out its national security functions, and comes at a dangerous time, with U.S. forces deployed across the globe, including as part of the Counter-ISIL campaign and NATO mission in Afghanistan,” the statement said.

For example, the bill would dissolve the Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and split the duties between two other offices. The administration said the move would be a reversion to “failed models of the past.”

The bill would also keep in place restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States. In addition to opposing that, the administration slammed a new provision that would expand transfer bans to any country for which the State Department has issued a travel warning.

“These warnings do not reflect a country’s ability to mitigate potential risk with regard to transferred detainees or serve as an appropriate substitute for the administration’s careful and individualized assessment based on all relevant facts and circumstances of the capability of potential receiving countries to successfully reintegrate detainees and implement appropriate security measures,” the statement said.

Another provision of the bill would restrict military-to-military engagement between the United States and Cuba, which the administration argues would hamper “pragmatic coordination.”

“For example, the commanding officer of U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and his Cuban counterpart meet monthly to share information about activities on both sides of the fence to reduce the risk of accidental escalation,” the statement said.

The bill would also cap the National Security Council at 150 staffers. The administration called that limit “arbitrary” and said it could impede the NSC’s ability to advise the president and coordinate between agencies.

President Obama has threatened to veto the bill every year he’s been in office, but has ultimately signed it. He did veto the bill at first last year, but signed it when a new version with different funding levels reached his desk.