Democrats in the Senate are following through on their promise to block the fiscal year 2016 defense appropriations bill as a tactic to force high-level discussions with the Republican majority to end sequestration, but the defense authorization bill was allowed to pass the upper chamber and now heads to a conference committee with the House. The White House has threatened to veto both bills because they feature inflated overseas contingency operations (OCO) accounts that are not subject to sequestration caps, but the $612 billion authorization bill - which passed the Senate with a 71-25 vote on June 11 - is most likely to reach his desk since Democrats are intent on filibustering the appropriations measure.
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