President Barack Obama is reportedly prepared to veto the critically important and wide-ranging defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2017 if the final version of the bill includes a long-standing religious exemption for faith-based contractors and religious institutions. According to Roll Call, senior Obama administration officials said during a White House meeting on Monday that the National Defense Authorization Act,

which is passed annually and lays out the budget and expenditures for the Department of Defense, could be vetoed if it lands on the president’s desk with the Russell Amendment included. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., provides faith-based contractors and service providers with a decades-old religious exemption from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. FULL REPORT