Congressional leaders signed and delivered the Fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act to President Obama just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, starting the 10-day period the President has to sign the bill into law or veto it, as he has threatened to do. Several Republicans, including House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tweeted that the bill had been sent to the President, and urged him to sign it. Earlier Tuesday, during a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he thinks Obama has “picked the wrong target” in saying he’ll veto the NDAA because of the amount of money in the overseas contingency operations fund. McCain stressed that the NDAA is an authorizing bill, not an appropriations bill, and said if Obama “cared most about the defense of the nation, then he would focus his attention on the appropriations bills.” The showdown is “really an unnecessary fight,” he added. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the fight is an “inside Washington political game” that loses sight of what the country asks the military to do. (Watch the full discussion.)
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.