Massive $585 Billion Defense Bill Passes

A massive defense bill recently passed in the Senate on Thursday that allows President Obama to expand his campaign against ISIS.

This is not the first time ISIS has been in the news recently. According to a report from the Inquisitr, Russian police battled ISIS in the Chechnya city of Gronzy, and authorities fear that ISIS may be linked to the bloody assault that killed 14 police officers. The massive defense bill passed by the Senate will help the U.S. fight ISIS.

The massive bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, is $585 billion, and passed 85-14. There were few objections from other senators, but the bill passed regardless.

The massive defense bill also gave lands sacred to Native Americans over to a foreign company that owns a uranium mine. A State Department spokesperson confirmed there were no violations of sanctions.

“We are aware of the mine in question and have discussed relevant compliance issues with the company,” the spokesperson said.

Senator Coburn was one of the senators opposed to the bill.

“Because what we’ve added to a must-pass bill is things that are very low, low priority in terms of the long-term priorities of the country and the fiscal soundness of the country, but the really high priorities for the politicians in this body,” Coburn said.

Senator Flake also disagreed.

“It’s never good to see big packages with so many things in them — that’s what we want to get away from,” Flake said. “But it’s been very difficult to move individual pieces of legislation over the last few years.”

Senator Inhofe argued the lands that are part of the massive defense bill were unnecessary, but the military funds are too important to not approve.

“The problem is [the House was] able to pass theirs on the floor; we were not,” Inhofe said. “It’s something that we really should have done a long time ago, and I’m hoping that we have learned a lesson from last year and this year — that we’re not going to let this happen again.”

After the massive defense bill has cleared the Senate, President Obama is expected to sign the bill to pass it into legislation. This will give the U.S. an expanded field to fight ISIS.

[Image via USA Today]