The House of Representatives on Friday passed the annual defense authorization bill that sets Pentagon budgets and sets policy priorities.
The vote was 269 to 151. Pentagon budget bills are usually passed with large bipartisan votes. But most House Democrats, protesting Republicans’ move to add extra money for defense programs to a special emergency fund to go around mandated spending cuts, voted no on the measure.
Democrats argued military programs were getting more resources at the expense of other domestic programs. President Barack Obama has already threatened to veto the bill. The Senate is considering its own version of the bill, so the two chambers will have to negotiate a final version before sending one to the White House.