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.
Time for Trump to slap the democraps down again, they are starting to act like they have some power and we can’t let the go unchallenged.
The 9th got put in its place again today by SCOTUS.
Life is good.
Durbin is a very mentally disturbed psychopath and Tammy Baldwin is closet Marxist. Trust what they say with extreme caution and lots of Lysol.
“...Democrats are not serious about our nations security....”
Well, they’re full-bore communists. One shouldn’t expect anything less.
If Democrats do not support national defense they will pay a terrible price in the 2020 election.
I agree about Sen. Durbin. He’s running for re-election, and I work for one of the Republicans who hopes to defeat him, Dr. Robert Marshall. He’s an army veteran and former Burr Ridge village trustee. He’s pro-life, pro-gun rights, anti-illegal alien, and pro-tax cuts. If you know anyone, who lives in Illinois, please ask them to help his campaign by volunteering and/or donating. We have to get at least 5,000 petition signatures between Sept. 3 & Dec. 3. His site is www.citizensforrobertmarshall.net.
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