WASHINGTON — Back in early October, Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to thrash Democrats for leaving the annual bill that funds national defense “in procedural limbo for months.”
His No. 2, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, joined him weeks later to complain, “We can’t afford to wait any longer to deal with it.”
Yet now, as Democrats attempt to push through the $768 billion stipend for the Pentagon as the year careens toward a close, it’s McConnell who wants to slow things down, requesting a “reasonable number of amendments” during a “normal process” on the Senate floor.
“The Democratic Leader wants to block the Senate from fully and robustly debating a number of important issues,” McConnell charged. “The [National Defense Authorization Act] is not finished yet. So the Senate cannot be finished yet either.”
Democrats have a hunch as to why the Republican leader is pumping the brakes on legislation he’s even said must pass — and eventually will pass. The more time Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is consumed with hammering out an agreement on the defense appropriation, the less time he has to muscle through President Joe Biden’s largest legislative prize: the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better social spending bonanza, which cleared the U.S. House just before Thanksgiving.
“When we tried to get consent to move on this package of [NDAA] amendments, our Republican colleagues came down to the floor and objected not once but seven times,” Schumer complained on Tuesday. “So we have had ample debate. This has been a fair and bipartisan and reasonable process that has showed respect to the other side. But this is a new Republican Party, unfortunately.”
McConnell wants more — potentially significantly more than the 18 amendments originally agreed to by the chair and ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, even though there were only seven amendments in 2020, when McConnell was majority leader.
That rolling amendment process could jumpstart as early as Wednesday afternoon, if an agreement is worked out. The impetus for an accord could simply be the other more imminent deadline: the expiration of government funding on Friday, which both parties have pledged to avoid.
If the overall NDAA gets stuck, there is likely to be an escape hatch through a continuing resolution that funds the nation’s defense for the interim. But foreign policy experts contest the main consequence from the standoff is how it is viewed by U.S. allies and foes.
“Since the NDAA is the one bill that people always expect to pass, Congress hung a lot of amendments on it — like the CHIPS Act — that are themselves important for national security,” said James Lewis, the director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Not passing these amendments creates problems and probably confirms the Chinese in their belief that we are dysfunctional.”
The CHIPS Act, for instance, includes $50 billion for domestic semiconductor research, design and manufacturing, meant to keep competitive pace with rival nations. It should easily clear the Senate, if it can earn a vote.
McConnell has cited other issues he believes should be debated as part of the defense bill, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression towards Ukraine and the consideration of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a Russian gas line.
“If there is opposition to this amendment – if it can be improved with modifications – then by all means, let’s have a public debate,” McConnell said.
Additionally, there could be votes on the Afghanistan withdrawal, repealing the authorization for military force that was used for both Iraq wars and permitting women to be included in a possible draft.
Early Wednesday, a plan was being floated to allow unanimous consent on a bundle of amendments that would expedite the entire process, potentially leading to a final NDAA vote by later in the day.
But that would only work if no senator objected — a prospect McConnell must manage within his own caucus before agreeing to any deal with Schumer.
Even if the NDAA gets delayed and possibly dragged into after the New Year, it wouldn’t be unprecedented.
As noted by DefenseOne, in 2011, the bill didn’t become law until Jan. 7 and in 2008, it didn’t earn the president’s signature until Jan. 28.
