The White House accused the Senate of playing politics with national defense by attaching a cybersecurity bill to a defense policy measure that President Obama has vowed to veto.
“We take a pretty dim view of that approach,” presidential press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday.
The fact that Senate Republicans added the cybersecurity bill to the defense authorization bill, which is usually a must-pass measure, shows that “they are interested more in playing politics than ensuring that we have all the tools we need to protect the [American] people from cyberattacks,” he said.
Late last week in the wake of announcing a massive cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management, the White House slammed Congress for failing to pass a cybersecurity bill despite a major push by the president early this year.
The White House has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill because it circumvents spending caps known as the sequester by increasing a temporary contingency war fund not subject to those caps, a move Democrats have called a “budget gimmick.”
The president also opposes the bill for provisions restricting his ability to transfer detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison or shutter the facility.
In the past, Obama has threatened to veto previous defense policy bills but then relented in the face of bipartisan support for the measures.
Asked how serious the White House veto threat is this time around, Earnest said Obama is “very serious.”
“The concerns that the president has are serious …,” he said, noting that the White House believes there are enough House votes to sustain a presidential veto.
