House defies Obama veto threat, approves $612B defense bill

[n2doc]

Source: The Hill

Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House on Friday passed a $612 billion defense bill in a 269-151 vote.

Only eight Republicans opposed the bill, while 41 Democrats supported it despite Obama's veto threat and opposition from House Democratic leaders, who whipped their members against the bill.

Obama has threatened to veto the bill over its circumvention of spending caps.

The bill keeps ceilings on defense spending in place under the 2011 budget deal that introduced sequestration spending limits, but would increase funding to the Pentagon's war account to try to give the Pentagon more spending flexibility.

The legislation authorizes roughly $523 billion in base Defense Department spending. Another $90 billion is included in the war fund, formally known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/242200-house-passes-612-billion-defense-policy-bill

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. That's right, neglect our crumbling infrastructure, including ordinary citizens, because WAR RULES!

[n2doc]

7. And Science, Education , Health care, Vets, Environment, and so on

The MIC has Congress by the you-know-what's. Everything else must be sacrificed to the mighty MIC.

[Stallion]

2. .6404761%

veto-proof? Could be close

[davidpdx]

15. It also depends on the margin in the Senate as it would have to pass both

Getting to 67 senators is a bit harder.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. $600 billion would buy a lot of just about anything. We choose war and war toys.

[onehandle]

4. That reminds me...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026670805

[jwirr]

5. This Pope is so very right on a lot of things.

[potone]

6. Yes he is.

He must be driving conservative Catholics crazy. What a pity.

[Cryptoad]

8. Funny how,,,,

we have plenty of money if the end user is a Big Defense Corp, but nothing for helping grunts and the veterans..... !

[n2doc]

9. List of Dems voting for this

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/242216-41-dems-buck-pelosi-in-defense-vote

Below is a list of the 41 Democrats who voted for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016:

1. Pete Aguilar (Calif.)

2. Brad Ashford (Neb.)

3. Ami Bera (Calif.)

4. Julia Brownley (Calif.)

5. Cheri Bustos (Ill.)

6. Matt Cartwright (Pa.)

7. Lacy Clay (Mo.)

8. Jim Cooper (Tenn.)

9. Jim Costa (Calif.)

10. Joe Courtney (Conn.)

11. Henry Cuellar (Texas)

12. Susan Davis (Calif.)

13. John Delaney (Md.)

14. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.)

15. Elizabeth Esty (Conn.)

16. Bill Foster (Ill.)

17. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii)

18. Gwen Graham (Fla.)

19. Denny Heck (Wash.)

20. Derek Kilmer (Wash.)

21. Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.)

22. Jim Langevin (R.I.)

23. Rick Larsen (Wash.)

24. John Larson (Conn.)

25. Daniel Lipinski (Ill.)

26. David Loebsack (Iowa)

27. Michelle Lujan Grisham (N.M.)

28. Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.)

29. Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.)

30. Patrick Murphy (Fla.)

31. Donald Norcross (N.J.)

32. Beto O'Rourke (Texas)

33. Scott Peters (Calif.)

34. Collin Peterson (Minn.)

35. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.)

36. Raul Ruiz (Calif.)

37. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.)

38. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)

39. Mark Takai (Hawaii)

40. Marc Veasey (Texas)

41. Tim Walz (Minn.)

[former9thward]

11. Kyrsten Sinema wants to run against John McCain next year.

She thinks the way to do that is to vote like him....

[Dont call me Shirley]

12. My Rep is getting a call Monday morning

[Fred Sanders]

10. Tricky. Keep the sequester in place for all spending except the military, using "emergency" clauses.

[cstanleytech]

13. This is very shortsighted of the Republicans and the handful of Democrats who supported it.

After all if you fail to maintain an infrastructure like ours you wont have much of a military in the end unless of course thats their goal ......weaken us by wreaking our infrastructure and in the long term it weakens the military.

[happyslug]

14. Who cares about these "defectors"????

269 + 151 = 420 that is the total number of Representatives.

2/3rd of 420 = 280

To override a veto you need 280 votes. The GOP has 269. If we add those eight republicans who voted against this the GOP has 277 votes. Thus these Democrats can go off the reservation without causing any real harm. Thus the democratic leadership let them vote the way they did. It is on close votes that the democratic party loses that you condemn defectors not votes that show the democratic party will prevail.

The real question will be if the votes count goes over the votes needed to override the expected veto. That will be the important vote not thus one given Obama's threat to veto this bill.