President Obama to veto defense spending bill

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- President Obama has announced he will veto the National Defense Spending Authorization Act for 2016, drawing harsh criticism from Republican lawmakers.

Congress passed a Continuing Resolution after months of debating what the 2016 budget will look like, avoiding a government shutdown by keeping the government open until December. In the face of pressure from the defense industry and emerging security threats overseas, Republicans in Congress attempted to bypass the Budget Control Act caps by moving $90 billion into the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which designated the funds as emergency war spending.

"That's an irresponsible way to fund our national defense priorities," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday. "If the president got this bill, he'd veto it."

Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the president's threat to veto the NDAA "shameful."

"The NDAA is a policy bill," McCain said in a statement. "It does not spend a dollar, and it certainly cannot raise the budget caps or deliver an agreement to fund the government. It is absurd to veto the NDAA for something that the NDAA cannot do."

Deliberations on defense spending comes as Pentagon officials voice concern over security threats in the Middle East, including the Islamic State, a Sunni militant group also identified as Daesh and by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL.

Russia began launching airstrikes in Syria, allegedly against the Islamic State, however military officials pointed out the attacks were more likely targeted against Western-backed rebels fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.