President Donald Trump has approved a $1 trillion budget package to fund government operations through Sept. 30 and increase defense spending by $21 billion, The Hill reported Friday.
He signed the fiscal 2017 omnibus spending bill a day after it was passed by the Senate through a 79-18 vote in order to avert a government shutdown.
Trump attached to the spending bill a signing statement that asserts his right to drop 89 provisions in the package and details his positions on various issues such as weapon systems, Guantanamo Bay and recruitment of policy advisers at the White House, according to a report by Gregory Korte for USA Today.
The spending bill contains provisions that prohibit the Trump administration to cancel A-10 aircraft, RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned systems and other weapons programs as well as fund nuclear-armed interceptors, Korte wrote.
Trump said in the statement those provisions on weapons programs “unconstitutionally limit my ability to modify the command and control of military personnel and materiel,†the report added.
