The House passed the annual defense policy bill on Thursday, which would lift a force-wide ban on troops carrying firearms at a military installation in an effort to end active shooter situations quicker.
The National Defense Authorization Act passed the House in a 270-156 vote, with 10 Republicans voting against it and 37 Democrats voting for it.
Even as the bill, which dictates policy for every corner of the military, makes its way through Congress, the president has promised to veto it over what critics call a funding gimmick to work around sequestration budget caps.
If it becomes law, the bill would require the defense secretary to create a process by which military commanders can allow troops to carry personal or military-issued firearms on a military installation if that commander decides it will keep forces safer. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said this week that the bill does away with a one-size-fits-all approach to arming troops for the entire military and allows a commander to make decisions on base-by-base basis.
“The conferees remain concerned about the response times to active shooter attacks on U.S. military installations and facilities,” lead negotiators of the defense bill wrote in the conference report. “The conferees believe that commanders of U.S. military installations and facilities should take steps to arm additional personnel in order to diminish response times to active shooter attacks if they believe that arming those personnel will contribute to that goal.”
Most recently, four Marines and one sailor were killed over the summer in Chattanooga, Tenn., when a gunman opened fire on two off-base military installations.
As it stands now, members of the military other than those specifically authorized to have guns, such as military police, cannot carry guns on bases. The military has said it does not support arming all troops
Debate on the bill on the House floor Thursday focused on the bill’s funding mechanism. The $612 billion defense bill, which also changes Pentagon policy on retirement pay, transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay, and recruiting incentives, funds the military at the president’s requested level by putting $89 billion into an overseas continuing operations fund not subject to sequestration budget caps.
“Frankly, whether you call it base funding, [overseas contingency operations] funding or pumpernickel, it doesn’t matter,” Thornberry said on the House floor. “It is money that goes to the troops.”
President Obama has said he will veto the bill because it fully funds the Defense Department while leaving sequestration caps in place for other areas of the government, despite the fact that groups like the Department of Homeland Security or CIA also contribute to keeping the country safe.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that Democrats would sustain a presidential veto of the defense bill. Thursday’s vote signals that the bill does not have enough votes to override a presidential veto.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this week that he recommended that the president veto the bill because it does not give the Pentagon budget certainty to plan for multi-year projects since money in the overseas contingency operations fund is budgeted only one year at a time.
