The Senate could take up the long-delayed defense authorization bill as soon as tomorrow, if senators can craft a successful agreement to limit debate on the policy-setting legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday that Republicans were still clashing on a plan to limit amendments to the massive bill, which senators often attempt to tweak through hundreds of floor amendments. While those GOP “discussions are going on,” Reid said he will move to other legislation today and potentially return to the defense bill tomorrow.
“I would intend to figure out some way to have Sen. (John) McCain (R-Ariz.) and others on the Republican side (agree) to return to the defense bill,” Reid said yesterday afternoon on the Senate floor. He cited “tentative agreements” to limit floor amendments that McCain, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), crafted two weeks ago with committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.).
“That’s up to Sen. Levin and Sen. McCain to figure a way forward on that,” Reid said. “I’m willing to work in any way that is reasonable this late in the game.”
Levin had told reporters two weeks ago, before last week’s congressional recess, that he and McCain were close to finalizing an agreement limiting amendments on the fiscal year 2013 bill so it could be considered in just three days, shorter than usual, on the floor this week. Levin said on Nov. 14 he wanted to allow only a limited number of amendments that are germane to the defense bill, but acknowledged he might have to agree to allow some non-relevant amendments.
Reid then said that night that the Senate was ready to move to the bill. But, the next day, Nov. 15, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked the Senate from considering the bill. He was upset because he had not received “an agreement in principle to get a vote” on a controversial detainee-related amendment he wrote, his spokeswoman said (Defense Daily, Nov. 16). Paul’s office did not respond to a request by press time yesterday about whether he plans to maintain his blockade of the legislation.
Reid has said he won’t file cloture on a motion to proceed to the defense bill, a procedural move to initiate debate that requires the support of 60 of 100 senators.
“It’s an important bill, but I want the record to be very clear: I’m not the cause,” Reid said Nov. 15 when explaining why he doesn’t want to file cloture, saying Democrats are “not the cause of this defense authorization bill not being brought to the floor.”
Reid slammed Republicans yesterday for blocking the defense bill during the current lame-duck session of Congress after he agreed to give a few days of precious floor time to it.
“(We’ve) been talking about it for months,” Reid said about the defense bill for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. “I agreed to move to it, no preconditions at all. We have to do other things. We have a very short period of time here now and everything around here is being stalled.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized Reid yesterday for blaming Republicans for stalling the defense bill.
“Look, if one senator has a problem with going to a bill, file cloture on the motion to proceed,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Had the majority leader done that on the defense bill, it would have been approved overwhelmingly. He could have done it on a Friday, it would have been approved on a Monday. The obstructionism that he complains about is pretty easily overcome if you’re willing to make the place work a little bit.”
Republican senators also blocked the defense bill from being considered back in September because they didn’t want debate limited to relevant amendments.
The House passed its version of the FY ’13 defense authorization bill in May. House and Senate armed service committee staffers have already held information conference committee negotiations on a final version of the bill, and only a few outstanding matters remain, congressional aides said.