WASHINGTON — Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House approved a $642 billion defense budget Friday that breaks a deficit-cutting deal with President Barack Obama and restricts his authority in an election-year challenge to the Democratic commander in chief.
The House voted 299-120 for the fiscal 2013 spending blueprint, which authorizes money for weapons, aircraft, ships and the war in Afghanistan — $8 billion more than Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last summer in the clamor for fiscal austerity.
Colorado’s delegation voted along party lines, except for Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who voted for the bill.
Insisting they are stronger on defense than the president, Republicans crafted a bill that calls for construction of a missile defense site on the East Coast that the military opposes, bars reductions in the nation’s nuclear arsenal and reaffirms the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, even U.S. citizens captured on American soil.
The divisive GOP provisions will have a short shelf life, as the Democratic-controlled Senate is likely to scrap many of them and stick to the spending level in the deficit-cutting agreement.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met privately last week with senators to argue for the president’s proposed budget, a blueprint the Pentagon says is based on a new military strategy focused on Asia, the Mideast and cyberspace as the nation emerges from two long wars. The Senate Armed Services Committee crafts its version of the budget next week.
The House bill is a reflection of the stranglehold the defense industry has on Congress. Weapons, aircraft carriers and jet fighters mean jobs back home.
What’s in the bill
The Pentagon is calling for another round of base closings, but Republicans and Democrats snubbed the proposal.
Lawmakers rejected an amendment to speed up the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, calling on Obama to maintain a force of 68,000 combat troops in the country through December 2014.
The bill would add $100 million to study three possible sites for a missile defense system on the East Coast and complete it by the end of 2015.
