Senate Dems Choice: Support The Troops Or Follow Reid & Schumer In 'Filibuster Summer'

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 16, 2015
The House reconvened at 10 AM today.
Bill that may be considered: H.R. 2596 — "To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes."

Yesterday the House passed several bills naming government buildings which are not listed. In addition they passed H. Res. 233 (391-0) — "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Iran should immediately release the three United States citizens that it holds, as well as provide all known information on any United States citizens that have disappeared within its borders."

The House did not take up today a second vote on the TAA ("Fast Track” for Obamatrade). Speaker Boehner is still expected to bring this bill back to the floor for a vote. The House has already passed the companion TPP bill.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging a no vote on the rule to extend debate of trade authority legislation to July 31:"House leadership set up the rules for considering fast track trade authority for Obama over the objections of 34 of their Republican members. Now House leaders want to move the goal posts and change those rules that fought so hard to get just days ago.

"Should the House move the timeline for consideration all the way to July 31, when the votes are not there today for passage, it would affirm America's darkest suspicions that the game is rigged in the house's favor. An extension will allow cynical horse trading to alter votes to occur, resulting in a bad deal for taxpayers.

"Americans for Limited Government urges the House to reject any extension of consideration of the trade bill. The leadership has had every advantage and still cannot win. It's time to put an end to this debate and move on to things that unite Republicans in the House."Consider how desperate the political establishment and Big Business paymasters are to revive the package of fast track Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bills that went down last week. The House Rules Committee slipped the rule for reconsideration of the failed TAA bill into the rule for H.R. 2596, the Fiscal Year 2016 Intelligence Authorization bill.

Both the National Defense Authorization bill (being held up by democrats in the Senate) and the Intel Authorization bill are considered “must pass” bills of each legislative year. According to the existing Rules, the Motion to Reconsider the vote on the failed TAA bill should take place today. The new rule would let the Motion to Reconsider vote on TAA be postponed through legislative day of July 30, according to a Rules Committee release.

If the House adopts the new rule, that would give the White House until end of July to build Democratic support for trade legislation that was stymied in House last week, according to Bloomberg Government reporter Jaclyn Kochell.

The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today resumed consideration of H.R. 1735, the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Authorization bill.

At 11:30, the Senate voted 78-21 to adopt the Feinstein-McCain amendment which limits the use of interrogation techniques to those outlined in the Army’s field manual throughout the federal government.

At 2:15, the Senate will vote on amendments offered by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), each of which will require at least 60 votes for adoption. Senators will then vote on cloture on the McCain substitute amendment (the committee-passed bill).

Yesterday, the Senate voted 62-24 to confirm Matthew McGuire to be United States Executive Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Later this afternoon, the Senate will decide whether to advance or filibuster the defense authorization legislation before us. Senators will take a vote and make a choice.“One option is for Senators to follow the bipartisan example of the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee, both of which passed defense authorization legislation with bipartisan backing. It means reaching across the aisle to support the men and women who support us every day. . . . It also means endorsing the Senate’s return to considering defense authorization bills through regular order — allowing real bipartisan debate and a real bipartisan amendment process, as we’ve done this year — as opposed to the bad old days of ramming it through at the last minute.”

“But there’s another option too — voting to filibuster; voting to raise the curtain on this bizarre ‘Filibuster Summer’ strategy we hear Democrat leaders boasting about in the press. Democrat leaders are apparently so passionate about dumping more cash into gargantuan D.C. bureaucracies like the IRS that they now seem prepared to block and filibuster the benefits owed to our troops and their families — or even shut down the government altogether — if they can’t get their way.”According to Politico, “Senate Democrats are ready to follow through on a risky strategy to confront Republicans this week over government spending, shrugging off Republicans’ assertions that blocking a military funding bill amounts to ‘political suicide.’

“It’s a gut-check moment for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his successor-in-waiting, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who aim to force Republicans to increase domestic spending by killing every GOP-written funding bill until they extract some concessions.

“The scheme will work only if all 46 members of their caucus are pulling in the same direction. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hopes to tempt some defense-minded Democrats to vote with Republicans by putting forward a national security spending bill as his opening move in the chess game, followed by other tough votes on military construction and veterans affairs.

“Despite the risk of being labeled soft on national security, Reid and chief message-man Schumer have largely persuaded moderates and liberals to stick with the filibuster strategy and block the $576 billion Department of Defense funding bill as early as this week, according to top Democratic sources. That’s an aggressive move, given that defense spending has historically been a bipartisan endeavor.”

Politico notes, “[T]he GOP sees Democrats’ strategy as more of a temper tantrum than a policy debate. If Democrats won’t even allow the Senate to debate a bill, they forfeit the opportunity to offer amendments aimed at getting their spending priorities enacted. . . . Republicans say that regardless of why Democrats are threatening to block military funding, it’s going to be hard to explain why they voted for a bill in committee then subsequently tanked it on the floor.”

And yet the Politico story is full of rank-and-file Democrat senators trying to square that circle.

“[B]oth [Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME)] are perfectly comfortable with Democratic leaders’ most confrontational strategy so far. ‘Eventually, we’ll have a chance to vote on a defense appropriations bill,’ Carper said in an interview. . . . ‘Candidly, all this stuff is hard for me. We work hard on the Appropriations Committee, we take pride in our bill,’ said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Still, she said she will support her leaders. . . . All but three Democrats supported the defense spending bill in committee on Thursday, but they mostly did so with a ‘yes, but’ explanation that they would oppose the bill on the floor. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called committee passage a “victory for Connecticut,” then explained that he will vote against it on the Senate floor . . . .”

Leader McConnell warned Democrats what lies down the path their leaders seem to want to take them on. “As one newspaper reported this morning, ‘Democrats appear eager to return to shutdown politics.’ The Minority Leader seemed to put it plainly enough the other day: ‘We’re headed for another shutdown,’ he said. But that can only happen if common-sense Democrats allow their party leaders to advance this shutdown-seeking ‘Filibuster Summer’ gambit.

“Today is every common-sense Democrat’s chance to say ‘enough.’ Today is every common-sense Democrat’s opportunity to help pull their party back from a senseless path of forcing endless filibusters and a shutdown no one wants but the Hard Left.

“Because here’s what every Senator knows deep down: Voting to filibuster would mean allowing Democrat leaders to take from every soldier, every sailor, every Marine, and every man and woman in the Air Force the pay raises they've earned, so Democrat leaders can use it as ante in a game of Shutdown Roulette. Voting to filibuster would mean allowing Democrat leaders to hold our military hostage at a time of unprecedented global threats, as part of some partisan ploy to extract a few more bucks for Washington bureaucrats. . . . So I hope they won’t.”

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