Obama Will Veto NDAA Today

President Obama will veto the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this afternoon according to the President’s schedule.

The bill cleared Congress on October 7 under a veto threat because of a budgetary maneuver — which critics call a “gimmick” — to add money to the defense budget without exceeding agreed-upon caps by putting it in an off-budget account, Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).   The President and congressional Democrats want to renegotiate the budget caps for all spending, defense and non-defense, rather than favoring only DOD.

According to the President’s schedule, he will veto the bill, H.R. 1735, late this afternoon in the Oval Office following a meeting with Bill Kellor, editor-in-chief of the Marshall Project, on criminal justice reform.