US Senate passes USD 612 billion defense policy bill

The Senate voted 71 to 25 to approve the bill, which President Barack Obama has threatened to veto. 

Sen. John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged his colleagues today to set aside differences about government spending and pass the measure, which authorizes money Obama requested for the Pentagon and other national security programs. He said that the world is more dangerous than it was in 2011, when the automatic spending cuts kicked in. 

"The Middle East is literally on fire," he said, adding that any senator who refuses to back the bill because of a heated budgeting dispute on Capitol Hill has his or her priorities upside-down. 

The bill, which now must be reconciled with the version passed by the House, provides a 2.3 percent pay increase for U.S. Servicemen and -women. It includes measures to ensure better accountability and curb cost overruns and also reaffirms a ban against torturing detainees. 

Democrats oppose the way the bill skirts congressional spending caps by padding an emergency war-fighting account that is exempt from the caps. They argue that if Republicans want to break through spending caps on defense, they should do so for nondefense spending, too. 

"There are some who say this is a one-year fix," said Sen. Jack Reed, the committee's top Democrat, who voted against the massive bill. "I don't think that's the case at all. I think if we use these types of, as some call, gimmicks, accounting tricks once, our tendency to use them again will be there. 

Once we've used it once, it is easy to use it two, three, four, five times." 

Democrats vowed to block consideration of another bill that actually spends money for defense. They have promised to block the defense appropriations bill in hope of forcing Republicans to the negotiating table, a strategy that seems risky. It would put Democrats on the hook for filibustering troop pay, funds for operations in Afghanistan and combating Islamic extremists, and the rest of the Pentagon budget. 

Hours before the vote, top Senate Democrats sent Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, a letter urging him to convene a mini-summit to find a way to match the Pentagon budget boost with increases for domestic programs such as education, infrastructure grants and law enforcement.