Week ahead: Senate takes up Defense bill

The Senate is poised to take up the long awaited defense authorization bill this week, but appears unlikely to finish it before Thanksgiving.

The upper chamber has scheduled a vote for Monday evening to proceed to debate on the measure, but Senate Democratic leadership aides said that they don’t think it can be completed before the two-week holiday recess.

{mosads}That would leave little time for the annual Pentagon policy bill to be hashed out in conference, because the Senate would not return until Dec. 9 — and the House is scheduled to adjourn Dec. 13.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said earlier this month that he wanted to get the bill done before Thanksgiving, but Democratic aides say that plan was thwarted by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

Vitter delayed a bill on the floor last week after Reid wouldn’t allow a vote on his amendment to force lawmakers to say whether they had placed their congressional staff on the ObamaCare exchanges.

Vitter does not plan to hold up debate on the defense authorization bill, and he will allow amendments to pass on the bill by unanimous consent, according to Senate aides. He plans to file his ObamaCare amendment to the bill as well.

If the Senate does not finish the authorization bill this week, it could allow the White House to dodge a vote on new Iran sanctions.

The Obama administration has urged the Senate Banking Committee to hold off on sanctions legislation, but some Republicans have indicated they will push it as an amendment to the defense bill.

Vitter said that Reid was trying blame him for delaying the defense bill when the majority leader was trying to put off the Iran sanctions vote until after Thanksgiving.

A Senate Democratic leadership aide countered that the Senate could have started work on the defense bill last week had the Louisiana Republican not held things up.

The six world powers and Iran are set to hold another round of nuclear negotiations Wednesday after they failed to strike a deal earlier this month.

There are a number of other controversial issues on the sweeping Pentagon policy bill, including amendments expected on military sexual assault, Guantánamo detainees and National Security Agency surveillance. The bill authorizes more than $500 billion in basedefense spending.

Off the Senate floor, the Senate Homeland Security Committee plans to vote on the nomination of former Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson to be the next Homeland Security secretary.

Johnson testified before the committee last week, where he faced a little resistance from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over committing to a border security plan. But so far, there doesn’t appear to be a significant effort to stop his confirmation.

On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, as the commission releases its annual report on U.S.-China relations.

The panel’s Personnel subcommittee will also hold a hearing that day on military resale programs.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday plans to examine terrorist groups operating in Syria amid the two-year civil war there, while the Senate Homeland Security panel will hold a hearing on designating federal positions as “national security sensitive.”