By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate’s lead defense authorizer is eyeing strategies for a speedy Senate vote on the defense authorization bill in September, before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1, since Republicans last weekend blocked Democratic attempts to consider the legislation with limited amendments.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told Defense Daily yesterday the Senate likely will not to take up the fiscal year 2009 Pentagon policy legislation this week, before the start of a five-week congressional recess.
That’s because in a rare Saturday session three days ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried unsuccessfully to bring up the defense bill with a unanimous-consent (UC) agreement to limit amendments to those related to the Senate bill, the House-passed version of the legislation, or the House Armed Services Committee, according to the Congressional Record. Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) objected to give consent on behalf of Senate Republicans to the amendment limitation.
“Although I may not personally have an objection to this, this consent would limit the rights of Senators to offer amendments to the defense authorization bill,” Hatch said Saturday, noting he was “asked to object” on behalf of Republicans.
Levin said yesterday he will continue to try to garner support for such a UC agreement this week. He said he would like to line up an expeditious vote for the Senate in September, when it will be in session for three weeks before adjourning on Sept. 26 for the year. The goal would be to conference with the House and have a final bill passed by Congress before October.
“We’ll try again this week, try to get a UC,” Levin said. “That’s progress around here, around the Senate, if you can get a UC agreed to.”
If a UC agreement isn’t in place before the August recess, the SASC chairman said the House and Senate defense authorization committees could do “a lot of work over August” on the defense bill, to hammer out differences before a Senate vote and conference committee in September.
“If there’s a lot of commonality there’s a lot of things that can be worked out,” Levin said. That “could… make [a UC agreement] easier, but also make it possible that once it’s achieved that we can then move more quickly.”
He maintained he’s optimistic about a UC deal being reached this week.
“It’s not a partisan issue about whether we’re going to provide the benefits for the troops, the pay increases…all the other provisions that are in the defense bill,” he said.
Levin and SASC second-ranking Republican Sen. John Warner (Va.) have been trying for weeks to garner support for a such UC agreement.
While Warner last week said he was working hard on the agreement, some of his Republican colleagues appeared uncomfortable with limiting input on the massive defense bill (Defense Daily, July 23).
“This is not a dictatorship,” Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the lead Republican on his chamber’s defense appropriations panel, said July 22. “I just don’t see changing the traditions of the Senate to meet the urgency of any particular moment.”
Meanwhile, on the House side, defense authorizers this week are expected to weigh contingency plans to give the Pentagon the authorizing power it needs if the Senate does not pass its bill and two chambers do not agree on a final version before fiscal year 2009 starts. Sources said options could include a significantly pared-down defense authorization bill or a separate legislative vehicle.
The House passed its version of the defense authorization bill on May 22. Significant differences remain between the two chambers’ bills, including the SASC’s acceptance and House’s rejection of the Navy’s February request for funding to buy one DDG-1000 destroyer in FY ’09. The sea service last week announced it wants to truncate the DDG-1000 program and build more of the older DDG-51 destroyers.
Levin said yesterday he cannot comment on the Navy’s new shipbuilding plans, because he had not been briefed by staff yet. He also was busy last week when Navy Secretary Donald Winter called him with the news.
“I regrettably didn’t have time to get back to him,” the senator said.