Posted on 09/11/2019 3:02:16 PM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Democrats are threatening to withhold their votes on a spending bill for the Pentagon unless Republicans agree to block President Trump from repurposing defense funds for his wall on the Mexican border, a tactic he’s employed in recent months.
Democrats on Thursday will offer an amendment in committee to block Trump from reprogramming defense funds for his wall.
“There will likely be some amendments offered, and my vote on final passage depends on the fate of those amendments,” said Sen. Dick Durban (Ill.), the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee on defense.
While the bill could squeak through the committee with GOP support, Democratic votes will be needed for the measure to win Senate approval. “It doesn’t portend very well for what’s going to happen on the floor, because we all know that without bipartisan support, appropriation bills are very difficult to call and pass,” Durbin said.
Political wrangling has not been limited to the defense bill.
Committee work on two other spending bills were scrapped as Democrats prepared amendments blocking President Trump’s abortion policies. Republicans say that violates a deal to keep controversial policy riders, or “poison pills,” out of the spending bills.
“Both sides agreed there would be no poison pills. No partisan wrenches thrown into the gears,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lamented on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, yesterday brought some disturbing signals that Democrats may be rethinking that commitment,” he added
The abortion battles affect the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill, and the appropriations measure for State and Foreign Operations.
That leaves the typically non-controversial Energy and Water bill and so-called 302 b allocations, which divvy up total spending among the 12 annual appropriations bills.
But Democrats are complaining about those measures too, arguing that Republicans have shuffled resources to pay for portions of Trump’s proposed wall and backfill accounts he has emptied for that purpose.
“We’re not going to vote for a budget that is partisan, attempted to be jammed down our throat, that puts an additional $12 billion in the wall. Forget that,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Without a change, Democrats could withhold support from all the bills.
“With the 302b allocations as they are today, I am not going to support them,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee’s vice chairman, is planning on offering an amendment proposing a different set of 302 b’s, but barring an agreement with Republicans, it stands no chance of passage.
“We like them like they are,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee’s chairman.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a committee member who has been known to cross the aisle and faces a tough reelection in 2020, said Democrats have not said what their preferred spending levels are.
“The Democrats have not seen fit to share with me at least the 302 Bs that they are going to propose,” she said Wednesday morning. “If they were trying to advocate you would think they would let us know what they were.”
But even if the bills pass through committee on a party line basis, appropriators could work something out before bills come to the floor, noted Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.)
“I think we’re going to continue to negotiate,” she said.
Members of Congress are clear that they have little chance of getting any spending bills signed into law by the September 30th deadline, and are preparing a stopgap measure into mid-November to prevent a government shutdown.
How democRats are like three to five year old children
Withhold defense votes...
vs
Drop to the floor screaming and kicking...
I agree, and a boost for Repubs in the election.
Do these Commie morons really think this is a winning issue with moderates / independents? They lost what little of their freaking minds they had left. Please Belapelosie make your Arizona, Nevada, NM, Texas and California backbencher Rats take this vote.
Democrats could care less if Americans die at the hands of illegals and terrorists, as long as those same illegals and terrorists pinky promise to vote Democrat that is all they care about
Right on! :^)
2020 ads.
“;^)
Democrats are now the enemies of our country and should be treated as such.
And on 9-11. Losers will always be losers.
An excellent point worth repeating.
Democrat promises last only until the Republican half of the agreement is paid.
-PJ
Exactly! The Senate Dems are welshers.
What better way to spend the defense budget than on protecting our own borders?
Imagine the Senate chamber filled with troops , the RAT senators lit up with little red laser dots as they are about to vote!
Way past time for the Turtle to kill fillibuster.
They ARE welshers; but more importantly, they are LIARS and CON-ARTISTS.
Amen to that, they most certainly are.
Do it, Democrats. Stop talking and just do it.
It will cost you the House.
Will Romney cross the aisle and vote with the Repubs?
That wouldn’t surprise me at all.
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