Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Congress to support a Defense Authorization amendment that would prohibit an increase in military spending unless domestic spending caps imposed under the 2011 Budget Control Act are also increased.
“Unless we deal with the impact of sequestration more broadly, middle class Americans will suffer drastic cuts in the things that matter to them,” the Nevada Democrat said Tuesday in a Senate floor speech. “Cuts in priorities like education, job creation and life-saving research.”
The Senate is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on an amendment by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that would prohibit the Defense Department from using $38 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations money to pay for increased military spending unless domestic caps are also lifted.
Reed’s provision marks the first attempt by Democrats to stop Republicans from passing and sending to President Obama spending bills that keep the sequester in place.
Reid, in his Tuesday floor speech, called on Republicans to work with Democrats to strike a deal on lifting the budget caps, as the two parties did in 2013.
“There’s no reason to wait to negotiate a bipartisan budget,” Reid said. “And it makes no sense to start spending extra money — on defense or anything else — until we agree on an overall plan.”
Reid called the GOP’s plan to boost military spending with the OCO funds, “a widely-ridiculed budget loophole, which would put extra defense spending on the nation’s credit card, increasing our deficit and our debt.”
Reid has vowed that Democrats would move to block any spending bill that leaves the budget caps in place and if they clear Congress, Obama said he would veto the bills.
