Overnight Defense: House votes to ban Gitmo transfers | NATO extends Afghan stay to 2017 | Clinton backs draft for women

by Rebecca Kheel - 06/15/16 6:37 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: The House is in the midst of debating amendments to its $576 billion defense appropriations bill.

Voice votes have been taken on a few amendments, but roll call votes on the more controversial ones won’t come until Thursday. Final passage is also expected Thursday.

{mosads}One thing you won’t see as the House debates the bill is the LGBT-rights fight that sank the Energy Department’s spending bill.

The Hill’s Cristina Marcos had the dispatch from Tuesday night’s Rule Committee meeting:

House GOP leaders won’t allow a vote this week on a proposal to ensure that federal contractors can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is gay, filed an amendment to a Defense Department spending bill that would enforce a 2014 executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people. The Defense bill is hitting the House floor in the aftermath of the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando.

But the House Rules Committee, which serves as an arm of majority leadership in deciding how legislation is considered on the floor, did not green-light Maloney’s amendment for a vote Tuesday night.

For more on the LGBT amendment, click here.

The Hill has info on a few amendments that did make it to the floor…

BANNING GITMO TRANSFERS: The House approved a measure to prevent the president from transferring any detainees out of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in the wake of a report that some former prisoners have killed Americans.

An amendment to the appropriations bill from Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) would prohibit using funds to transfer a Guantánamo detainee to “any other location.”

The amendment was passed by voice vote, and no roll call vote was requested.

If signed into law, Hudson’s amendment would be the strictest prohibition on transfers yet.

“We are at war with radical Islamic extremists, yet our commander-in-chief is so focused on closing Guantanamo Bay that he ignores the danger represented by these terrorists,” Hudson said in a written statement. “The American people are counting on us to protect them. The president’s plan is as dangerous as it is naive, and my amendment is another hurdle to make sure it never happens.”

Read the rest here.

IMMIGRATION FIGHT: The Hill’s Marcos reports on amendments to prevent illegal immigrants from enlisting in the military:

House GOP leaders decided late Tuesday night to grant floor time to two Republican-authored amendments to a defense spending bill. The amendments would ensure that no funds can be used for enlisting in the military young illegal immigrants granted work permits under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The amendments, authored by conservative Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), are sure to cause uproar among Democrats and some centrist Republicans who believe DACA recipients should be allowed to serve in the military.

Immigration hard-liners such as King and Gosar say that only immigrants who are in the country legally should be able to serve in the armed forces.

Read more here.

IN OTHER NEWS… NATO CONFERENCE ENDS: The Hill’s Kristina Wong, still reporting from Brussels, has the details on the final day of the NATO defense ministerial, which included news on Afghanistan and the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

NATO is expected to maintain troops in Afghanistan going into 2017, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Wednesday.

The U.S. was originally scheduled to draw down to an embassy presence in Kabul by the end of this year, but President Obama in October decided to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in the country going into 2017.

NATO’s decision means two additional military hubs in Afghanistan will remain open, according to a senior NATO official.

NATO is also looking to train Iraqi officers and provide other direct support in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to alleviate the burden on U.S. and other coalition members’ resources.

“We will discuss how we can extend our training for Iraqi officers as they continue to fight ISIL,” said the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday, using the administration’s preferred acronym for the terrorist group.

Read more about Afghanistan here and ISIS here.

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:

CIA Director John Brennan will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in an open hearing at 9 a.m. at the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216. http://1.usa.gov/1trD3Zs

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on transnational criminal threats at 9:30 a.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 419. http://1.usa.gov/1Pk6Sj7

The Senate Armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of Gen. David Goldfein to be chief of staff of the Air Force at 9:30 a.m. at Dirksen G-50. http://1.usa.gov/1VQvGWB

A House Foreign Affairs Committee subpanel will have a hearing on global religious freedom at 12:30 p.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172. http://1.usa.gov/1Pk6DVo

ICYMI:

— The Hill: GOP chairmen to Obama: Don’t allow Russian spy flights over US

— The Hill: Clinton backs requiring women to register for draft

— The Hill: Military seeks to reduce use of Common Access Cards

— The Hill: Air Force recovers crashed database

— The Hill: House won’t vote on Navy ship-naming restrictions

— Reuters: North Korea may be ‘significantly’ upping nuclear bomb output

— Washington Post: How a heroic Marine’s military training helped him save dozens from Orlando gunman

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Rebecca Kheel, rkheel@digital-staging.thehill.com

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