The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Sept. 12 to send the fiscal year 2020 defense appropriations bill to the Senate floor, but not before Democratic members made clear they would push back against the White House’s attempt to reappropriate military construction funds to build new barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border.
The normally bipartisan vote was conducted along party lines, 15-16, and Democratic members’ efforts to introduce amendments that would cancel the Trump administration’s attempt to move $3.6 billion from current projects to the wall were quashed by the same vote numbers.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted that lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to provide $1.4 billion for border barriers and equipment in January, following a 35-day government shutdown that largely affected the Department of Homeland Security. Congress should provide “not a penny more,” he declared, noting that reprogramming funds away from previously appropriated projects set a poor precedent. “The president has contorted the law beyond all recognition, and undone congressional funding decisions by fiat.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the SAC defense subcommittee, similarly critiqued the effort to move funds around, adding that not a single Pentagon official that he has spoken to has been able to justify the spending change. “We were being told by the Department of Defense [that] we need every dollar. … We’re being taken for at least $7 billion in cushion money that the president is going to pull out … for his wall.”
Leahy and Durbin introduced an amendment Thursday that would have barred any appropriated funds from being used to construct a wall, fence or other barrier along the southern border, which was voted down along party lines.
The debate over border wall funding is expected to spill over onto the Senate floor. Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) – a member of the SAC defense subcommittee – and other Republican members said they were committed to moving as many bills across the Senate floor as possible before the end of the fiscal year occurs Sept. 30.
“I hope we won’t get so bogged down here that we don’t achieve what we wanted to achieve, [which is to] avoid a continuing resolution [or] government shutdown,” McConnell said during the committee markup session Thursday. “I’m praying … that the curtains will part here and we will figure out a way to move forward.”
Shelby told Defense Daily Thursday after the markup that while he felt “pretty well” about the committee moving two spending bills – for energy and water as well as defense – to the Senate floor, the border wall funding fight may be tough to work out.
“We haven’t disseminated yet” where there may be room for compromise, he said.
The bill advancing to the Senate floor includes $622.5 billion in base Defense Department funding and $70.6 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds, along with $1.7 billion for emergencies. That includes $132.8 billion for procurement – nearly $14 billion above the presidential budget request – and $104.2 billion for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) programs — $1.6 billion above the FY ’20 request.