The White House did not threaten to veto the Defense authorization bill as it came out of committee, but it still objected to several provisions in the measure Monday.
The Defense authorization bill, which the Senate voted to begin debate on Monday, does not include restrictions on transferring detainees out of Guantánamo Bay that had prompted veto threats from the White House in prior years.
{mosads}“The committee’s provisions are a significant improvement over existing law,” the Office of Management and Budget’s Statement of Administration Policy said.
But Senate Republicans plan to pursue an amendment from Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) that would restore the restrictions and also prevent detainee transfers to Yemen in response to President Obama’s decision to lift the moratorium on Yemen transfers earlier this year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he hoped the Guantánamo amendment was one of the first the Senate would take up as it begins work on the Defense bill this week.
In the Armed Services Committee’s Defense bill, Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) included an easing of transfers to the United States for trial, as well as transfers to foreign countries.
Republicans in the committee agreed to wait to debate those issues until the bill came to the Senate floor.
The White House still objected to other provisions in the bill, though none rose to the level of a veto threat.
The administration is opposed to the rejection of a new round of base closures, which Congress has blocked the Pentagon from pursuing for two years. It also expressed opposition to cuts in research funding, a realignment plan for Marines in the Pacific and the retention of Navy reconnaissance EP-3 planes.
The administration had praise for the Senate for including several provisions on healthcare and compensation costs, including a planned pay raise next year of just 1 percent. The House, however, included a pay raise for troops at 1.8 percent in its version of the bill.