USA — President Signs Defense Authorization Act

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2011 — Not­ing his objec­tion to two of its pro­vi­sions, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma signed the fis­cal 2011 defense autho­riza­tion act into law Jan. 7.
The Ike Skel­ton Nation­al Defense Autho­riza­tion Act for Fis­cal Year 2011 is named for for­mer U.S. Rep. Ike Skel­ton of Mis­souri, long­time chair­man the House Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, who lost his House seat in November’s elec­tion.

“The act autho­rizes fund­ing for the defense of the Unit­ed States and its inter­ests abroad, for mil­i­tary con­struc­tion, and for nation­al secu­ri­ty-relat­ed ener­gy pro­grams,” the pres­i­dent wrote in a state­ment accom­pa­ny­ing the signing’s announcement. 

Oba­ma reg­is­tered “strong objec­tions” to two of the act’s pro­vi­sions relat­ed to trans­fer of detainees from the U.S. facil­i­ty at Guan­tanamo Bay, Cuba. One pro­hibits the use of funds appro­pri­at­ed by the act to trans­fer Guan­tanamo detainees into the Unit­ed States, and the oth­er bars the use of cer­tain funds to trans­fer detainees to the cus­tody or effec­tive con­trol of for­eign coun­tries unless spec­i­fied con­di­tions are met. 

But despite his objec­tions to the two sec­tions, the pres­i­dent said in his state­ment, “I have signed this act because of the impor­tance of autho­riz­ing appro­pri­a­tions for, among oth­er things, our mil­i­tary activ­i­ties in 2011.” 

The act gov­erns a wide range of Defense Depart­ment activ­i­ties, includ­ing pro­cure­ment; research, devel­op­ment, test­ing and eval­u­a­tion; equip­ment oper­a­tion and main­te­nance; mil­i­tary per­son­nel autho­riza­tions and pol­i­cy; and reserve-com­po­nent management. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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