House to vote on new defense bill, won’t try to override Obama veto

The House will take up a new version of the defense policy bill rather than try to override President Obama’s veto of the original bill, Republican leadership said Tuesday.

“We’re going to take up our own [National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)] with the new budget numbers that were agreed to last week,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said.

The decision comes the morning after negotiators reached an agreement on how to slash $5 billion from the bill to meet the funding levels approved in the budget deal last week.

{mosads}President Obama vetoed the NDAA mostly over appropriation issues, which were addressed in the budget deal.

With the budget passed, the Republican imperative to override the president’s veto died down as a new version of the bill could be brought forward.

The House vote to pass the bill, 270-156, would not have been enough to override the veto, though Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said repeatedly in recent weeks that he thinks the House was in the “ballpark” of having enough votes.

The House will vote on the new version of the bill this week, Scalise said. The only difference is the $5 billion in cuts.

When vetoing the first bill, Obama also voiced an objection to provisions related to Guantanamo Bay that would effectively keep him from closing the detention facility for another year. Those provisions remain unchanged.

Scalise urged the president to sign the new version to authorize troop pay and benefits, emphasizing next week’s Veterans Day holiday.

“There’s no better way to honor our troops the week before Veterans Day,” he said, “than to pass this important bill and have the president sign it once it gets to his desk.”

Kristina Wong contributed to this report