The Senate today named the conferees that will work with the House to smooth out differences in their National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA).
The Republican side is led by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and includes Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
The Democrat negotiators are: SASC ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
This afternoon, Reed offered a motion to instruct conferees that would have forced lawmakers to draft a final conference report that eliminates the $38 billion added to Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and puts it back in the base budget. The move would put the bill over spending levels mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which Reed believed would drive lawmakers to begin negotiations that could lift caps on defense and other discretionary funding.
The motion failed by a vote of 44 to 52.
Earlier this morning at an event with reporters, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that budget negotiations are unlikely to start until President Barack Obama makes good on his threat to veto the NDAA.
During conference, he will press McCain and the other GOP conferees to strip OCO funding for the bill to press both parties to compromise, but “I don’t expect I’ll have a receptive audience,” he said. “I expect they will ignore us.”
Smith is one of the 32 House conferees named last month (Defense Daily, June 25) .