Democrats split in Senate vote advancing defense bill

Senators are moving forward with a wide-ranging policy bill despite a push by a top Democrat to slow down the process.

Senators voted 68-23 to end debate on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) during a rare Friday vote. Sixty votes were needed to overcome the hurdle.

{mosads}But the move split Democrats, with 17 voting for and 20 — including Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — voting against. Three Republican senators voted against ending debate.

The vote came after Reid made an 11th-hour stand that lawmakers should hold off on ending debate so they could try to hash out a deal on amendment votes.

“I also am concerned about the so-called amendment process,” he said. “It’s really been unfair, the whole process here, so far that and many other reasons I will vote ‘no’ on cloture.”

The $602 billion defense bill broadly outlines policy and spending rules for the Pentagon and the military branches. Hundreds of amendments have been filed, but senators have had a roll call vote on three while approving more than a dozen more by voice vote. 

Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) tried to set up their separate amendments to the bill Friday morning but were blocked. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said there were objections from Republican lawmakers and all amendments were currently being blocked. 

“I have reached a level of frustration that I would even consider changing the rules of the Senate that one individual out of 100 can’t bring everything to a screeching halt, and that’s what’s taking place here,” McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said. 

Gillibrand had indicated last month that she thought she would get a vote on her proposal to remove military sexual assault cases from the chain of command.

“Our commanders are great at winning wars and training troops,” she said Friday. “They are not prosecutors. They’re not even lawyers. … Their job is to keep our country safe, not make legal judgments about whether to prosecute a rape.” 

Gillibrand has been unsuccessful in her push to include the change in the NDAA in previous years, and it’s unclear if she would have had the 60 votes needed. 

Lawmakers tried to take up two additional amendments Thursday afternoon but were blocked by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who wanted a vote on his proposal banning the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on American soil. 

Both McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pointed Friday to Lee as the lawmaker holding up a vote on any of the hundreds of amendments that have been filed to the defense bill. 

“In Mike Lee’s world, he has to get what he wants,” Graham told reporters. “I think a lot of us are tired of, you know, one member of the Senate saying, ‘This is so important you can’t anything else unless I get this.’ … It’s out of bounds in the third grade. It should be out of bounds in the Senate.” 

Conn Carroll, a spokesman for Lee, confirmed that the Utah Republican is currently blocking any amendment votes unless he gets a vote on his amendment. 

He added that Graham is the only senator currently blocking Lee from getting a vote on banning indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. The South Carolina Republican opposes the proposal.

Graham told reporters he offered Lee a vote if he could get a separate vote on an amendment related to the Export-Import Bank, but Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) objected. 

Friday’s vote sets up the Senate to finish its work on the defense bill early next week. 

The Senate bill is under fire from both sides. The White House is threatening to veto the legislation over a myriad of policy issues, including restrictions on Guantánamo Bay transfers and a cap on the size of the National Security Council staff. 

The conservative Heritage Action also warned it opposes the bill and will include final passage of the legislation as a “key vote” on its scorecard.

“Regardless of whatever merits the bill may have, it deserves to be defeated because lawmakers should not force young women into military services through the Selective Service,” the group said in a release Friday.

Despite pushback from conservative senators, the Senate legislation currently requires women to register for the military draft.