UPDATE: President Obama has signed it, despite being "disappointed" in the bill.
"Congress again failed to enact meaningful reforms to divest unneeded force structure, reduce wasteful overhead, and modernize military healthcare," Obama said in a statement. "Instead, the Congress redirects funding needed to support the warfighter to fund additional end-strength that our military leaders have not requested at a time when our troops are engaged overseas supporting the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and against al-Qaida."
***Original Post***
Last week, Congress presented President Obama with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, legislation which would provide our troops with the biggest pay raise in six years. He didn't sign it - and House Speaker Paul Ryan's office is not pleased.
Ryan's communications director Mike Ricci has been venting his frustration on Twitter. Why, he wonders, did Obama sign several bills, but not the one that was dedicated to our soldiers?
He signed a bunch of bills on Friday before leaving for Hawaii, but I guess they didn't put the troop pay raise in that stack. pic.twitter.com/n7SlGnVOUb
— Mike Ricci (@riccimike) December 22, 2016
The White House tends to place any pending legislation on its website so the public can see what's on the docket, but when Ricci checked the page, it was blank.
But look. No troop pay raise bill listed. Does this mean the president may NOT sign it 'in the coming days'? https://t.co/rNDPUY67Eo pic.twitter.com/azGeS755Yh
— Mike Ricci (@riccimike) December 22, 2016
Obama has vetoed former versions of the NDAA, partly because they would have prevented him from transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
This year's version, however, was passed with veto-proof majorities.
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