U.S. President Barack Obama attends his final news conference of the year in the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Dec. 16, 2016. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has signed an annual defense policy bill into law though he said he was disappointed in many aspects, the White House announced Friday.
The wide-ranging National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed by both the House and the Senate with veto-proof majorities earlier this month, lays restrictions on transferring detainees out of the Guantanomo Bay facility, ensuring that Obama will not be able to fulfill his goal of closing it before he leaves office.
It authorizes a total of 618.7 billion u.s. dollars in spending, including a troop pay raise of 2.1 percent, though Obama has only requested for a 1.6 percent pay raise.
It also calls for 3.2 billion dollars more in base defense funding than Obama has requested, plus an additional 5.8 billion dollars in White House-requested war dollars.
As for the size of the Army and Marine Corps, the new bill authorizes 476,000 active-duty soldiers (16,000 more than requested) and 185,000 Marines (3,000 more than requested).
Obama said despite his disappointments, he signed the bill because it "authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe."
However, "Congress again failed to enact meaningful reforms to divest unneeded force structure, reduce wasteful overhead and modernize military healthcare," Obama said.
"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." he said.
On the campaign trail, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump promised a massive military building-up, including boosting the Army to 540,000 active-duty soldiers, increasing the Navy to 350 warships and adding 1,200 new Air Force fighter jets.
