Senators were getting ready to leave town after an overwhelming 86-11 vote Thursday night to pass the annual defense authorization bill, and Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer was doing a little bragging.
“This Senate is an example of how bipartisanship can work and again. Let me just reiterate, because it’s the contrast, the glaring contrast with the House, where the Republicans don’t work in a bipartisan way and just throw stuff on the floor that they know has no chance of passing,” the New York Democrat said at a news conference Thursday. “It doesn’t help the American people.”
The House vote on its version of the defense bill was 219-210, with just four Democrats crossing over to support the measure, which includes a number of contentious provisions sure to be unpalatable to the Senate. That includes amendment language that would rescind the Pentagon’s program reimbursing servicemembers who must travel to obtain reproductive health care.
