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Defense policy bill draws veto threats

The White House issued a multi-pronged threat to veto the Senate’s defense policy bill for 2008 — even before senators attached provisions aimed at changing the U.S. strategy in Iraq.

Veto threats came in a Tuesday statement of administration policy by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. That statement includes opposition to some military benefits improvements included in the bill, including a proposed 3.5 percent military pay raise.

Objection to the raise is not unexpected; the White House said the same thing when the House passed its version of the defense bill that included a 3.5 percent military raise effective Jan. 1, slightly bigger than the 3 percent raise sought by the Pentagon. The small addition is “unnecessary,” the statement said, noting that military basic pay has increased by 33 percent since 2001 and that the small increase would add $2.2 billion to the military’s expenses through 2012.

Also drawing opposition are two other benefits proposals: an expansion of concurrent receipt of full military retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation for those eligible for both payments, and a change in reservists’ retired pay that would allow those mobilized for long periods to receive retired pay earlier than age 60, the minimum age set in current law.

The benefits proposals did not draw a specific veto threat, but other provisions did.

The policy statement said the White House also opposes provisions that would impose new restrictions on how the Defense Department handles the tribunals and commissions to decide the fate of people being detained as suspected terrorists, calling the requirements “unwarranted and disruptive.”

Also drawing a veto threat are two intelligence-related provisions. One would require U.S. intelligence agencies to provide Congress with requested documents within 15 days unless the president refuses on grounds of executive privilege. The second disputed provision would prohibit the White House from requiring intelligence agencies to get approval and coordinate what they are going to say before testifying before Congress.

The provisions drawing the veto threat could be worked out in negotiations that will involve the House, Senate and White House writing a compromise version of the bill.

It is less clear how a compromise could be reached if the Senate includes some proposed amendments related to Iraq or Iran, or a possible amendment modifying the legal rights for enemy combatants being detained by the U.S., each of which has drawn a veto threat.

“Setting a date for withdrawal is equivalent to setting a date for failure,” the policy letter said of the proposed Iraq amendment. It warns that pulling out of Iraq “could lead to a safe haven in Iraq for terrorism that could be used to attack American and freedom-loving people around the world. It is likely to unleash chaos in Iraq that could spread across the region.”