Senate Dems Threatening Gridlock On Funding For Troops And Everything Else

In Mafia style approach, Sen, Minority Leader Reid
addressed FY 2016 Defense Appropriations Bill as
  "I think it really is kind of a waste of time.”

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 5, 2014
The House is not in session today and will reconvene at 2:00 PM on Monday. Yesterday the House considered amendment on H.R. 2577 — "Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes." The House will take up this bill again when they return.

The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene on Monday at 3 PM. Yesterday, the Senate voted on three amendments to H.R. 1735, the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Authorization bill. Adopted were amendments from Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) by votes of 61-34 and 48-44. Rejected was an amendment from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, which failed to get the 60 votes needed by a vote of 53-42.

Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Senate consideration of the critical Defense Authorization bill was a “waste of time.”  But now he’s going even further – threatening to block all legislation funding the government, including the measure that funds the Pentagon and pays the troops, unless Democrats’ demands are met for even more spending on agencies like the IRS and EPA.

Yesterday, Politico reported, “Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is vowing to use Senate rules to block the entire appropriations process — an aggressive new phase in the Democrats’ legislative strategy that could invite charges that he’s creating the same kind of gridlock Reid accused Republicans of when they were in the minority. . . .

“At a closed-door Democratic leadership meeting Tuesday night, Reid (D-Nev.) vowed that his caucus wouldn’t allow a single spending measure to get a floor vote, sources familiar with the meeting say. And on Thursday at noon, his top lieutenants announced their party’s intentions to filibuster and prevent Republicans from even calling up the spending measures.”

Reid Wilson, formerly of The Washington Post, spoke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about Democrats’ announced intentions to shut down the appropriations process. “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he sees Democratic efforts to block a defense spending bill as evidence that the minority remains ‘wedded’ to the dysfunction that ground the Senate to a partisan halt in recent years.

“Democratic senators said Thursday they would block the defense appropriations measure from reaching the floor this month unless Republicans agree to lift caps on government spending not related to defense. In an interview with Morning Consult, McConnell said that move shows Democrats are relying on delay tactics.

“‘The current behavior, threatening to deny funds for veterans and for our troops overseas in a kind of childish pique because they want to spend more on agencies like the IRS and the EPA underscores once again what the source of the dysfunction was,’ McConnell said. ‘And they’d like to continue it.’”

Leader McConnell also told Politico, “Underscoring their devotion to D.C. dysfunction, Democrats are now threatening to deny funding for the brave men and women who protect us, their families, and veterans in a childish gambit to wrest billions more for wasteful bureaucracies like the IRS. . . . Though their behavior is completely discordant with the real challenges facing our country, we nonetheless intend to work our way through this.”

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