Senators struggle for compromise on Sen. Feinstein’s detention amendment

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is trying to reach a compromise with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.) on her amendment limiting the military detention of U.S.
citizens.

Feinstein told The Hill that Levin is seeking to present a substitute
to her amendment on the defense authorization bill. The Feinstein amendment is currently written
to prevent indefinite military detention for U.S. citizens.

{mosads}Levin said he was seeking a different “approach” with
Feinstein when asked if he supported her amendment. Levin spoke with The Hill during a brief break while managing the defense bill’s amendments
on the floor Thursday.

But it remained unclear whether a deal could be reached, as Feinstein told The Hill that she doubted she would
support the compromise measure, at least as it currently stood.

Feinstein and Levin declined to discuss details of any negotiations,
which Feinstein said also involved Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Paul, who earlier this month had threatened to filibuster the defense bill over a vote on indefinite detention, told The Hill that he was not settling for anything short of a vote on Feinstein’s amendment.

During last year’s fight over indefinite detention
provisions in the defense authorization bill, Levin sided with Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) and other Republicans as the Senate defeated amendments from
Feinstein that would have curbed the detention rules. An 11th-hour compromise
was eventually brokered that said the defense bill did not change current law.

Feinstein’s amendment seeks to change the detention laws in
last year’s defense bill and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military
Force.

“I believe strongly the time has come now to end this legal
ambiguity and to state clearly once and for all that the AUMF or other
authorities do not authorize such indefinite detention of Americans apprehended
in the United States,” Feinstein said on the floor Wednesday.

Levin said that Feinstein’s amendment this year is “very
different” from her previous measure, but he did not indicate whether he would
support it.

Republican hawks in the Senate told The Hill they opposed
Feinstein’s amendment, although some showed more willingness than others to consider changes.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said there could be second-degree
amendments offered that would allow her to support it, but she did not in its
current form.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, said he didn’t think he
could negotiate with Paul. The indefinite-detention fight has split the libertarian
and hawkish wings of the Republican Party.

“What Feinstein and Rand Paul do is they say an American
citizen who joins al Qaeda to attack us should be viewed as a common criminal. I
think that is a dangerous concept,” Graham said. “I don’t think there’s any
room for negotiation between me and Rand Paul. We have a different worldview.”

Graham said that some of the “demagoguery” over who could be
detained by the indefinite detention laws was “outrageous.”

“The limitation of who could be held under the law of war is
very narrow, and so when our Tea Party friends come out and say if you go to a Tea Party rally big government is going to come put you in jail as a terrorist,
that offends me,” Graham told The Hill.

Asked about Feinstein’s amendment Thursday, McCain told
reporters: “Of course I’m opposed.”

But with the mix of liberal Democrats and
libertarian-leaning Republicans, Feinstein said she believed the amendment has “substantial
votes.”

The support of Levin and other more hawkish Democrats could
ultimately decide the amendment’s fate.

Updad at 4:25 p.m.