The Pentagon would be authorized to provide $300 million in lethal aid to Ukrainians fighting Russian-backed separatists, under the fiscal 2016 defense policy bill, a senior congressional staffer said.
The bill, on which House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement on Tuesday, also would provide $600 million to continue the program to train and equip vetted Syrian moderates to fight the Islamic State, the staffer said.
House and Senate negotiators unveiled their compromise defense policy bill Tuesday afternoon, even as the administration promised to veto the bill over a funding mechanism to bump up defense spending.
The authorization bill approves funding for fiscal 2016 at the president’s requested level of $612 billion, but works around the budget caps imposed by sequestration by putting $89 billion in a war fund that skirts budget caps. Critics have referred to the overseas contingency operations account as a “slush fund.”
The conference report was introduced in the House on Tuesday afternoon and lawmakers are expected to vote on it on Thursday, said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the bill would encourage the administration to provide weapons to combat Russian tanks, such as the javelin weapon system. The bill would authorize weapons such as mortars, grenade launchers, unmanned aerial surveillance systems and cyber capabilities. A portion of the funding could be used to pay for training of Ukrainians, the bill says.
The conference agreement also would prohibit the use of any funds for military-to-military cooperation between the U.S. and Russia as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin is occupying Crimea. That prohibition can be waived by the defense secretary if he finds it in the national security interest of the U.S.
In funding the train-and-equip program for moderate Syrians, the Pentagon would continue a project that has come under fire from lawmakers.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that just “four or five” graduates were remaining from the first class of 54 fighters to complete the program. The Pentagon later revised that number to nine active fighters.
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Of the remainder of the first class, 14 left the New Syrian Force to join another moderate group, 18 were missing somewhere inside Syria, one had been killed and one had been captured by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra front.
Central Command also revealed late last week that one unit of U.S.-trained fighters gave about a quarter of their equipment to the al-Nusra front in exchange for safe passage, which violates guidelines for the program.
Despite these problems, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday that the training is still going on, but said later in the day that the department has “paused” the movement of new recruits from Syria to training sites outside the country.
“I don’t have any formal announcements at this time with regard to changes to the program,” Cook told reporters at the Pentagon. “This entire program is under review, there are changes being considered.”
The conference report includes changes to the military retirement system, acquisition reform to place more responsibility with service leaders and the tightening of rules for transferring detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Not a done deal
If the bill passes Congress, it faces a veto from the administration over a workaround that allows Capitol Hill to fully fund the Defense Department without raising sequestration budget caps. President Obama has said he would veto any measure that does not solve sequestration or raise domestic spending alongside defense funding.
Of the seven Senate Democrats on the conference committee, only two — Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana — signed the compromise report. Of the 14 House Democrats, only Rep. Madeleine Bordallo of Guam signed the report.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he along with most Democrats did not sign the report because doing so allows lawmakers to go another year without addressing sequestration.
“I’m afraid that if we follow through with the legislation, not only will we not deal with it directly, but it will give some people as I said before a reason not to deal with it,” he said.
Cook said Defense Secretary Ash Carter will recommend that the president veto the bill.
“[T]he budget situation evolved here and the need to fully fund this department at the president’s level and to fund the other agencies of government that are assisting in the effort, for example the counter-ISIL campaign. And so the secretary’s view on this has not changed,” Cook said.
