US House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry called the US House of Representatives approval of a $612 billion defense funding bill a "good, strong, bipartisan vote."

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The US House of Representatives approval of a $612 billion defense funding bill on Friday showed strong bipartisan support for military spending, US House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry told Sputnik on Friday.

“I thought it was a good, strong, bipartisan vote,” Thornberry said, despite a large number of Democrats backing the White House position and opposing the bill.

Thornberry explained that “the concerns for the people voting ‘no’ had nothing to do with the bill.”

House Democrats introduced an amendment into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to allow illegal immigrants to serve in the US military. The amendment was ultimately defeated by opponents of US President Barack Obama’s immigration policy.

“This was not the appropriate bill to have that debate,” Thornberry noted.

The final vote on the NDAA was 269 in favor and 151 opposed. The defense spending bill must still be approved in the US Senate and signed into law by the President.

The $612 billion funding bill is in line with requests made by the US Department of Defense. House members were able to avoid the congressionally-mandated budget caps by shifting more than $90 billion in spending to an account for overseas contingency operations.