WASHINGTON — The Senate early Friday approved a $3.5 billion budget blueprint that calls for a substantial increase for the Pentagon's war account. But a senior defense hawk held fire on an amendment that would have made it easier to inflate that fund.
The Senate concluded a marathon voting session — known as a "vote-a-rama" — around 3:30 a.m. by voting 52-49 to approve the amended budget resolution. Shortly after voting began around noon Thursday, the chamber soundly rejecting two amendments aimed at increasing annual Pentagon spending.
Senators never got a chance to vote on an amendment floated earlier in the week by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. He had talked about offering an an amendment proposing to waive a provision in the budget measure requiring 60 votes on the floor later in the year to increase the war fund above the initial number in the original version, crafted by Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.
"Sen. McCain felt he got a lot of what he pushed for in the budget resolution," a Senate aide told CongressWatch Friday. "The House position is strong on defense. He is confident any parliamentary issues can be worked out in conference."
That's where the Senate-approved resolution now heads. House and Senate conferees soon will begin work on compromise version of their differing resolutions. And defense issues are at the forefront. The House's $3.5 trillion measure inflates the overseas contingency operations (OCO) account to $96 billion; the Senate's version takes it to $89 billion. And the upper chamber's version contains the provision requiring 60 votes to include a bigger-than-requested ($50.9 billion) in a defense appropriations bill later this year.
Early in the "vote-a-rama," the chamber killed amendments offered by potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Paul's measure would have offset a defense-budget hike with cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. The amendment got just four votes, including Paul's. Ninety six senators voted against it.
The Rubio amendment, offered along with GOP rising star Tom Cotton of Arkansas, would have swelled the national defense account to nearly $697 billion, while allowing for increases from 2017 through 2025. The chamber shot it down 32-68.
Later, the Senate voted down, 46-54, an amendment by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., that would have created a special fund — but required the monies to be offset with other cuts — for operations to fight the Islamic State.
Notably, by a 46-53 vote, senators killed an amendment from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that would have raised defense and domestic spending caps and replacing sequestration in 2016 and 2017. It also would have nixed the inflated OCO funding, and offset the increased spending by closing tax loopholes.
The "vote-a-rama" is expected to stretch into late Thursday evening or the wee hours of Friday morning. At its conclusion should be an up-or-down vote on the amended budget resolution, which includes $499 billion for base Pentagon spending authority and $89 billion in war funding.
Like the other amendments and the final resolution vote, McCain's measure needs a simple majority of 51 to pass. If it fails, defense hawks would need 60 votes to increase the war fund later this year when the defense appropriations bill hits the floor.
Email: jbennett@defensenews.com
Twitter: @bennettjohnt
