Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., center, flanked by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., left, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., speaks during a news conference on Defense Authorization legislation, Thursday, June 4, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Associated Press/Susan Walsh
No. 2 Democrat Launches Standoff over Defense Spending ‘Gimmick’
The GOP shot down Sen. Dick Durbin’s amendment, but look for its main idea to resurface when the spending bill hits the Senate floor.
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat fired the first shot Thursday in his party’s latest campaign against the GOP push to use unfettered war funds to get around the budget caps.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., offered an amendment to the 2016 defense appropriations bill that would shift the $35.9 billion Republicans are trying to put into the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations fund into the base budget instead. (Here’s a summary of the amendment provided by Durbin’s office.) The base budget, unlike the OCO war funding, is limited by the 2011 Budget Control Act, and under Durbin’s measure, the money would only become available upon the enactment of a new bipartisan budget agreement.
That amendment was shot down by a 14-16 party-line vote by the full Senate Appropriations committee, which passed the bill Thursday.
But look for the idea to resurface when the bill comes to the Senate floor. Democratic leaders said they will block any vote to begin considering the 2016 defense appropriations bill on the floor so long as it contains what they, the White House, and Pentagon leaders have all called the OCO “gimmick.”
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is already warning that an impasse could bring another shutdown in October; both parties are accusing each other of “holding national security hostage.”
The House is expected to vote on its version of the defense spending bill Thursday.