House passes Defense authorization bill

The House Thursday passed a massive defense authorization bill following a bitter debate over missile defense funding.

Lawmakers voted to cut $764 million from missile defense programs despite Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) efforts to restore the entire sum.

{mosads}Despite widely publicized disagreements over missile defense and the GOP’s fight over parliamentary procedures, the 2008 defense bill passed by an overwhelming majority. Only two Republicans, Reps. Ron Paul (Texas) and John Duncan Jr.
(Tenn.) voted against the measure. Twenty-five Democrats, including Lynn Woolsey (Calif.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Jim McDermott (Wash.) and freshman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), voted against the bill.

The House passed an amendment from Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) that would require the Defense Department to study the current capacity of U.S. military facilities to hold and try detainees now held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  

The move is considered a first step toward closing the controversial military prison, as several leading Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), have advocated.

The bill includes $503.8 billion for the Department of Defense and nuclear weapons activities that fall under the Energy Department. The legislation also authorizes $141.6 billion in supplemental spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal 2008.

However, the measure faces a veto as the White House objects to several provisions, including the Guantánamo language.