Dear Friends,
Last week, I went on First News with Kevin Miller and the Dave Elswick Show to discuss the President's potential veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2016. At the time of these interviews, I was surprised we were even having the conversation because it seemed almost impossible that the President would veto the bill that funds all aspects of our military, including pay and benefits for the men and women who fight our wars.
But, on Thursday afternoon, just as he said he would, the President vetoed the NDAA. This is unconscionable and a kind of recklessness not befitting of a Commander-in-Chief. For 53 years, Congress and the President have authorized the NDAA, and it’s a process that generally is immune to politics.
The 2016 NDAA passed both chambers of Congress with an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority. In the Senate it received 71 votes – 71! As I have quipped before, you can't get 71 senators to agree what day of the week it is, and yet they were able to come to a bipartisan consensus on how to fund our military.
Unfortunately, the consensus was momentarily derailed by this President. Mind you, this is the same President whose indecisive and ineffective foreign policy has created unprecedented threats in the Middle East, East Asia, and Eastern Europe for America and her allies.
Only four times has the NDAA ever been vetoed, and every previous time it was over something technical or easily reconcilable. This will mark the first time President has held military funding hostage for the purposes of his furthering his own domestic legislative agenda.
In doing so, our President has stooped to a new low. Now, the Congress must unite, and for the first time during his entire Presidency, override a veto.
Sincerely,
Representative French Hill |
