US President Barack Obama has signed into law a massive $619 billion military spending bill for the next year.
In a statement on Friday, Obama said he had signed the bill despite being “disappointed” with Congress’ refusal to apply his proposals for the 2017 budget.
“Congress again failed to enact meaningful reforms to divest unneeded force structure, reduce wasteful overhead, and modernize military healthcare,” the outgoing president said.
“Instead, the Congress redirects funding needed to support the warfighter to fund additional end-strength that our military leaders have not requested,” he added.
The White House initially threatened to veto the budget because it was $3.2 billion more than what Obama had proposed.
By signing the bill, Obama also agreed with a 2.1-percent pay raise for the troops. He was aiming for 1.6 percent at first.
The lawmakers also voted to increase the end strength across various services, which means that under…