The Times of Israel:
The US Senate is expected to vote Wednesday afternoon to advance a key defense spending bill with a number of provisions guaranteeing security assistance to Israel, but is expected to run into the president’s veto pen.
The National Defense Authorization Act is the newest epicenter of a fight over federal spending levels and the budget for fiscal year 2016.
The bill, which governs defense spending for the 2016 fiscal year, would authorize the establishment of a joint anti-tunnel program between Israel and the US. The initiative would be funded up to $25 million per year, provided that matching funds are provided by Israel. The bill would also provide over $206 million earmarked for rocket and missile defense ventures, including $41.4 million for the Iron Dome missile defense project, up to $150 million for procurement of the David’s Sling mid-range rocket interceptor, and a maximum of $15 million for the Arrow 3 long-range interceptor program.
It also would require Congress to be briefed on the anticipated sale of fighter airplanes to Qatar, including an analysis reflecting on the implications of the sale for Israel’s ability to retain its “qualitative military edge.”
Speaking late last month in Washington, former IDF chief-of-general-staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz emphasized the commitment to Israel’s military edge as one of the highlights of the US-Israel relationship.
The act is viewed as a must-pass piece of legislation that sets funding levels for the coming fiscal year and, on the way, also dictates national defense policy.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will head to President Barack Obama, who has already indicated that he will veto the bill.
Obama is unhappy that the bill ups funding to the Defense Department by tens of billions of dollars and surpasses the levels determined by the budget-cutting sequestration legislation.
Sequestration, which went into effect in 2013 as a result of the failure of Congress and the administration to agree to meaningful reductions in federal spending, entailed a series of across-the-board budget cuts to many key federal operations – including defense.
The Senate, however, seemed poised to forge ahead with the legislation, despite the threat from the White House.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 73-26 to invoke cloture on the bill, which means that open debate over the legislation has ended and that following up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate the next likely step is to vote on it. Unlike in the case of the promised presidential veto of the disapproval vote on the Iran nuclear deal, Democrats did not try to block the bill from advancing by preventing cloture – a process known as the filibuster.
Nevertheless, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid indicated late Tuesday that despite the fact that over half of the Senate Democrats voted to invoke cloture, he would garner enough Democratic votes after the bill’s passage to prevent the Senate from overriding the presidential veto.
Overturning a presidential veto requires a 67-vote majority in the Senate.
In addition to setting funding for joint US-Israel partnerships as part of the larger defense budget, the current legislation includes a number of policy dictates regarding US actions in the Middle East…
