The Senate may soon be ready to debate the delayed Pentagon policy bill, as Senate leadership could bring the measure to the floor without a controversial provision related to military detainees.
Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said last Friday the White House remains opposed to language in the bill which says some suspected terrorists must be held in military facilities. Levin for weeks has maintained President Barack Obama’s administration misunderstands the language in the defense authorization bill, which his committee approved back in June, noting the legislation would allow it to waive the military-detention requirement.
Levin said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) “has indicated to the White House he’s going to try to get that language out of the bill before he calls up the bill.”
Reid told reporters last Tuesday that the Senate would take up the defense bill before the end of the year, and he hoped a resolution on the detainee language could be hashed out in the following days. Levin had suggested if the administration remained opposed to the detainee language that it be separated from the bill and debated as an amendment.
The Pentagon cannot enter into new contracts until the defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2012, which started Oct. 1, is signed into law or permission is granted in other legislation. Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s general counsel, warned during a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank last Tuesday that the military will face problems carrying out some operations without the authorization legislation approved.
Reid had delayed consideration of the defense policy bill because the White House does not like language that states some suspected terrorists must go through the military detention system, while others are detained in U.S. civilian facilities. Levin, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank last Friday, repeated his argument that the White House should not object to the provision, because it would allow administration officials to waive the military-detention requirement.
“The administration has improperly, inaccurately characterized our bipartisan language in our bill on there, in our bill, which contains that waiver for the president to avoid what he doesn’t like,” Levin maintained.
The Senate is slated to return from a one-week recess next week. The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), Howard “Buck” McKeon (Calif.), seized on Reid’s comments last week about moving forward with the defense authorization bill. The House passed its version of the legislation in May.
“I am pleased to have Senator Reid’s commitment that we will have a defense bill this year,” McKeon said in a statement last Friday. “The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have worked hard to produce a serious piece of legislation.” McKeon slammed Reid, though, for not ensuring a FY ’12 defense authorization or appropriations bill was passed before the fiscal year started Oct. 1.
After the Senate passes its version of the legislation, House and Senate negotiators will work out a compromised version that would need both chambers’ approval before it is sent to Obama’s desk.