GOP-led House backs limits on Obama’s authority

Published June 20, 2014 5:50pm ET



WASHINGTON (AP) — In an election-year challenge to President Barack Obama, the Republican-led House on Friday overwhelmingly approved a $570 billion defense bill that halts any Guantanamo transfers for a year amid the furor over the American-for-Taliban swap and pulls back on government spying.

The vote was 340-73 for the measure that provides money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, personnel, ships and aircraft. An unusual coalition of libertarian Republicans and liberal Democrats pushed through new limits on National Security Agency surveillance as the year-old revelations of bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records still roil the debate of security versus privacy.

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