House Republicans found a way
to bypass the budget caps of sequestration by adding an extra $89 billion in "emergency war-fighting" to their $612 billion bill to fund the Department of Defense. The legislation passed 269-151 with most Democrats opposing it, and the White House has
threatened to veto it over the funding gimmick.
The bill increases defense spending by padding the emergency war-fighting fund, which is not affected by the caps. Democrats argue that the GOP wants to ignore spending caps when it comes to funding the military, but wants to adhere to them when it comes to other domestic spending.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter urging her colleagues to vote against the bill.
"The Republican defense authorization bill before the House is both bad budgeting and harmful to military planning — perpetuating uncertainty and instability in the defense budget, and damaging the military's ability to plan and prepare for the future," she wrote. "As Defense Secretary (Ash) Carter said last week, Republicans' approach is 'clearly a road to nowhere,' 'managerially unsound' and 'unfairly dispiriting to our force.'"
The White House objected to the bill over its funding scheme but also because it poses more hurdles to closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison and aims to arm the Ukrainian military as it battles Russian-backed rebels.
The House GOP managed to strip one good item from the bill last night that would have directed the military to consider allowing Dreamers to enlist for service.
The Senate's defense funding bill is similar to the House version, also with about $90 billion in emergency war funding. But no timeframe has been set for when the Senate will take up the bill.