On Monday, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022, which authorizes $768 billion in defense spending.
The bill has gained support from both Democrats and Republicans and was overwhelmingly voted on in the Senate and House of Representatives.
After signing it into law, Biden said “The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense”.
The act authorizes about 5% more military spending than last year and “includes a 2.7% pay increase for the troops, and more aircraft and Navy ship purchases, in addition to strategies for dealing with geopolitical threats, especially Russia and China,” Reuters reported.
It includes various budgets for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the European Defense Initiative, Baltic security cooperation, and the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. A 16-member commission was also created to study the war in Afghanistan.
The bill, however, does not provide money to remove Guantánamo Bay detainees. In a statement, Biden said “It is the longstanding position of [the White House] that these provisions unduly impair the ability of the executive branch to determine when and where to prosecute Guantánamo Bay detainees and where to send them upon release”.
“In some circumstances these provisions could make it difficult to comply with the final judgment of a court that has directed the release of a detainee on a writ of habeas corpus,” Biden added.
According to the New York Post, the president also had an issue with “provisions in the bill requiring reports on the amount of US military equipment destroyed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the threat posed by Iran-backed militias in the Middle East”.
Biden said those reports “will, in the ordinary course, include highly sensitive classified information, including information that could reveal critical intelligence sources or military operational plans”.