By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate could take up the Pentagon policy bill as soon as today, after an expected vote last night to end a Republican blockade of considering the legislation that emerged from committee in April.
Meanwhile, on the appropriations side, the House Appropriations Committee yesterday afternoon postponed a markup of the defense spending bill that had been scheduled for this morning, though the bill-writing session is expected to be rescheduled to another time this week. And the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee officially said yesterday it will markup its version of the defense appropriations bill tomorrow morning, moving the appropriations process for Pentagon spending forward in that chamber.
“It’s all about defense this week,” an aide said yesterday, the start of a marathon minimum-three-week session in which lawmakers hope to wrap up their work for the year.
The Senate was scheduled to vote last night, after Defense Daily‘s deadline, on allowing debate to proceed on the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill. Debate could start as soon as this morning on the Senate floor. However, deliberations procedurally could not begin that soon if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had to file for cloture last night on the motion to proceed to the bill, because doing so would delay proceedings by 30 hours.
Reid said yesterday he hopes Democrats and Republicans can agree to terms of debate on the FY ’09 defense authorization bill, begin debating it today, and pass it this week. He said he wants to clear the way for senators to “legislate our hearts out” next week on energy matters, including the Republican-backed issue of allowing more offshore oil drilling.
“We need to finish the defense bill,” Reid said yesterday on the Senate floor, standing with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) during the first day Congress worked after a five-week recess.
Senate Republicans had blocked consideration of the defense authorization bill in July, because they wanted to proceed on energy legislation first (Defense Daily, Aug. 4). Yet Reid’s pledge to vote on drilling next week was expected to lower opposition.
The House passed its version of the FY ’09 defense authorization bill on May 22, and aides are waiting to kick off a House-Senate conference committee in hopes to send final legislation to the White House before FY ’09 begins Oct. 1. Thorny issues dividing the chambers include the Senate’s support for, and House’s opposition to, giving the Navy $2.55 billion to buy a third ship in the ill-fated DDG-1000 destroyer program. The White House also has also threatened to veto the legislation over matters including missile defense spending reductions.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), made a plea yesterday for Republicans to support a unanimous consent (UC) agreement limiting debate on the defense authorization bill to matters germane to it. He and SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) tried in vain throughout the summer to garner support for such a UC (Defense Daily, July 23).
McConnell said he would talk to GOP senators about the UC agreement late yesterday afternoon.
“I’m certainly open to try to move the measure along,” the Republican leader said.
Senate Republicans rejected such an attempt to debate the defense authorization bill under a UC in July (Defense Daily, July 29).
Reid floated the idea yesterday afternoon of meeting with McConnell, Warner, and Levin to decide which amendments they would allow to the defense authorization bill.
Congress has not passed any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY ’09. If the defense appropriations bill gels in time, it could be used as a vehicle for a continuing resolution for other government spending.