Senate Democrats Tuesday blocked for a third time a key defense spending bill, signaling they will not take up any spending legislation outside of an all-inclusive package that incorporates both military and domestic spending.
Sixty votes were needed to advance the bill to a final vote, but Democrats prevented the Senate from getting there.
The bill would provide $515.9 billion in base Department of Defense funding and $58.6 billion in overseas operations, which includes operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the fight against the Islamic State.
While the funding amount was agreed upon under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Democrats have dropped their support for the bill since then. Democratic leaders said they don’t trust the GOP to negotiate in good faith on the remaining domestic spending bills if they agree to the military spending separately.
Democrats also said the Zika funding bill, which they oppose, has made them less willing to work with Republicans on individual spending bills. Democrats blocked the Zika bill just before they moved to block the defense bill.
The two parties are expected to give up on passing the 12 appropriations bills separately and will instead cut a deal on a short-term funding bill that lasts until the end of the year.
