A senator who has stalled the defense authorization bill in the Senate said yesterday he was prepared to drop his blockade, likely allowing the chamber to debate everything from military biofuels to Air Force aircraft this week.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had told the heads of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) they could have three days this week to debate the Pentagon policy-setting bill, which covers fiscal year 2013, which already started on Oct. 1. Yet Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has blocked the bill since Nov. 15, waiting for assurance the Senate would vote on a controversial amendment to ensure U.S. citizens held in terrorism cases are granted jury trials.
Paul said yesterday that his “understanding is they’re going to let me have a vote on indefinite detention.” That vote could be on an amendment he wrote or a similar one crafted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), he said.
“If there’s a vote on that that probably makes me happy, if we guarantee the right to trial by jury for American citizens,” Paul told reporters, noting Feinstein’s amendment has bipartisan support.
“If they let us have a vote on that, probably things will go forward,” Paul said.
SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) welcomed the news yesterday that Paul is yielding on allowing the Senate to take up the defense authorization bill. Levin and SASC member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters they are open to allowing the Senate to debate Feinstein’s amendment.
“These are serious issues,” Levin said. “We want to debate them and vote on them…We want to get to” the bill.
The Senate potentially could take up the defense authorization measure today, after completing work on disabilities-related 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.
Levin, for his part, urged Reid to take that step if necessary, and vented about senators like Paul blocking legislation by threatening to filibuster motions to proceed to bills.
“If someone wants to filibuster a motion to proceed to the defense authorization bill, let them filibuster,” Levin said. “I predict it won’t last an hour.”
The chamber will have to ignore many proposed amendments to the defense measure if it debates it over just three days–a shorter period of time than the bill has stayed on the Senate floor in past years.
Levin said he and SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) have not crafted a deal to limit floor amendments, but will attempt to work on proposed amendments behind the scenes to limit floor debate.
Multiple amendments on the Pentagon’s controversial alternative-fuel-development efforts are expected to be debated.
Supporters of the Pentagon’s work on biofuels, mainly Democrats, want to strike language in the version of the defense authorization bill the SASC approved in May. The measure currently prohibits the Pentagon from buying alternative fuels if they cost more than traditional fossil fuels and also bans the military from building a biofuels refinery unless specifically authorized by law.
Levin is among the supporters of the military alternative-fuel efforts. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is poised to become SASC ranking member next year, strongly opposes them.
“We have a thing called a Department of Energy,” Inhofe told Defense Daily yesterday, explaining his opposition to such work being funded by the military. Still, he acknowledged strong opposition in the Senate to the biofuels prohibition currently in the defense bill.
“It’ll be a hard one to hold on to,” Inhofe said.