The Senate on Thursday failed to advance the Pentagon’s spending bill on its second try, yet voted to begin work on the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill before leaving town for a seven-week break.
Senators voted 90-7 to officially begin the conference process on the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a procedural formality since House and Senate conferees met for the first time on Wednesday. Armed services committee staff are expected to try to find compromises on areas ranging from acquisition reform to funding levels throughout the summer recess.
The Senate also voted on two motions that would instruct the conferees to include specific proposals in the compromise final policy bill, though that instruction is not binding.
One from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., asked negotiators to include more visas in the bill for Afghan interpreters who served with U.S. troops and are facing danger in Afghanistan because of their service with American forces. That passed on a 84-12 vote.
“Congress must not turn its back on these individuals. That outcome would be a moral failing,” Shaheen said Thursday on the Senate floor.
The Senate also approved a motion from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, on an 85-12 vote that would ask conferees to authorize funding to pay for the two recent announcements that slowed the drawdown in Afghanistan and boosted the number of troops in Iraq, leaving almost 3,000 more troops than planned in the Middle East into 2017.
“Every time we turn around, we hear of another increase in our military presence,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “Yet with all of these promises and commitments, we see no request for additional funding.”
While lawmakers advanced the negotiation process on the policy bill, it failed to start debate on the fiscal 2017 spending bill. McCain called it “unbelievable” and said allowing debate and amending the bill will yield a better final product than an omnibus, which is not open for amendments.
“We have a world that is literally on fire. That is apparent every time we pick up the newspaper,” McCain said. “Instead of having a robust debate and discussion and amendments as to how we can best defend this nation, we are going to again have my friends on the other side of the aisle stop us from taking it up? Why?”
The 55-42 procedural vote that failed to invoke cloture on the spending bill was the Senate’s second attempt to move it forward by meeting a 60-vote threshold. The last attempt failed by a 50-44 vote last week when Democrats blocked the bill in a move Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., called “deeply irresponsible and troubling.”
