Obama's veto on U.S. defense budget bill for 2016 won’t affect aid for Ukraine
United States President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill on the U.S. defense budget but this won't affect the country's assistance to Ukraine, the Ukrainian Embassy to the U.S. has reported.
"U.S. President Barack Obama has vetoed the bill on the budget in support of the U.S. national defense for 2016 (National Defense Authorization Act) due to a number of reasons not related to the volume of assistance to Ukraine, which is envisaged in this document," the Ukrainian Embassy said on its website.
According to this information, Obama has explained his decision by the fact that Congress has ignored a number of reforms to modernize the U.S. Army which were proposed by the presidential administration as well as the fact that the document makes it impossible to close Guantanamo Bay prison, which is a matter of principle for the U.S. president.
"The administration didn't have any issues about the volume of defense aid to Ukraine envisaged for the next year in the amount of $300 million, and which has been supported by both parties and houses of Congress," the embassy said.
According to the embassy, the document is being returned to Congress where two-thirds of votes of the Senate and the House of Representatives are needed to overcome the president's veto.
"The House of Representatives has scheduled the vote on this matter for November 5 of this year," the embassy said.
According to the embassy, even if this bill and other components of the U.S. budget for 2016 don't come into effect, military and other assistance to Ukraine will continue, as in this case the so-called "continuing resolution" will be put into force, which will transfer the amount of financing of the 2015 budget into the next year's budget.
As reported on October 7, the U.S. Senate approved the draft budget for 2016 for the national defense needs (the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016). The document allows the secretary of defense in coordination with the secretary of state to provide military assistance to Ukraine worth $300 million in the 2016 fiscal year. Of this amount, $50 million can be used to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine.