White House threatens veto of Senate defense spending bill

As the Senate continued to consider the fiscal 2006 Defense appropriations bill for the second day, the Bush administration on Friday threatened to veto the legislation if it falls billions short of the Pentagon's budget request.

An Office of Management and Budget Statement of Administration Policy released Friday criticizes the Senate Appropriations Committee markup of the Defense spending bill (H.R. 2863), which falls $7 billion short of the Pentagon's initial budget request.

The administration is concerned that the committee intends to shift the $7 billion "from critical defense requirements to fund non-security-related accounts," the administration statement says. The cuts either will negatively affect military readiness, or force the military to use supplemental funding to pay for their "base needs," it added.

President Bush also may use his veto power to kill the bill if it includes language that would halt or delay defense base closures, or regulate the treatment of detainees, according to the five-page OMB document. The administration issued the same warning when the Senate first began debating the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, which was shelved in late July after less than a week of debate.

Senate leaders have not yet rescheduled floor time on the reauthorization legislation. Senate Armed Services Committee leaders are considering attaching their massive bill to the Defense appropriations bill as an amendment.

Armed Services Airland Subcommittee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced an amendment to the authorization bill that would standardize detainee treatment, while Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., pushed language that would delay the current round of base closures.

McCain has said he will do whatever is necessary to get his detainee amendment passed. Meanwhile, Thune has not decided whether to pull his base-closure amendment, even though South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base was taken off the closure list.