House Passes $595 Billion Military Spending Bill

Amendments Trim Afghan War Spending

In a vote of 315-109, the House of Representatives has passed a Fiscal Year 2014 military spending bill, setting aside $595 billion for military funding, including $82.3 billion for war funding.

The war funding was the amount President Obama requested, but saw money shifted out of Afghanistan by several amendments, including the Mulvaney Amendment (passed 215-206) which trimmed $3.5 billion in funding for the Afghan War.

Other amendments mostly affirmed the status quo, blocking the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees, while the Amash Amendment to scrap the NSA telephone surveillance program failed 205-217.

Positive amendments are unlikely to survive as the bill moves on to the Senate and is then reconciled at any rate, and the huge amount of money thrown at the military annually continues.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.