Article Posted on : - May 17, 2015

A file photo.

WASHINGTON (AP): The House has passed a nearly USD 612 billion US defence policy bill despite a veto threat by President Barack Obama.

Democrats oppose it because they say the measure paves the way to cutting domestic programs later this year.

Friday's vote was 269-151 for the bill, which maps next year's military and national security programmes.

A 2011 bipartisan budget deal placed caps on defense and domestic spending. The defense bill skirts those limits by putting USD 89 billion of the total into an emergency war-fighting fund exempt from the caps.

Democrats predict that Republicans won't take similar steps to protect domestic programmes in upcoming spending bills.