Senate Dems draw rare line against must-pass Pentagon bill
Senate Democrats drew a rare line in the sand against a yearly, must-pass defense package in an act of rebellion against President Donald Trump.
Democrats blocked a procedural hurdle for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a perennial bill that opens up funding for the Pentagon and military. Many were already frustrated by the overall funding target of the package and pushed over the edge by the renewal of the Iran war.
"It’s very disappointing," Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital.
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"It's about supporting our troops, supporting our military, and it's disappointing when Democrats play games with that," he continued.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., charged on the Senate floor that Republicans wanted the upper chamber to take up the bill "as though none of this is happening."
"The president is waging an unauthorized war, defying bipartisan majorities in Congress, refusing to level with the American people at the cost of the mission or the endgame," Schumer said. "The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran."
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Early signs of trouble for this year’s NDAA first appeared during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s vote to advance the legislation. The majority of Democrats, nine out of 13 on the panel, voted against it.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was one of the "no" votes, something he acknowledged was a rare move.
He said guardrails needed to be added to Trump’s war authorities in Iran and a deeper explanation provided of where exactly the staggering $1.15 trillion authorized by the bill would come from.
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"The Iran war issue is, I think, one of the major issues about the NDAA, but it's not the only issue," Kaine said. "The absence of knowing where this money is coming from to do this dramatic top-line increase? That still has to get resolved."
Republicans, however, contended that taking the first step on the bill would allow for an amendment process to modify it.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital, "It's pretty frustrating, people need to come together and act in the best interest of the country."
"We have to, you know, we have to have a strong military," Scott said. "Whether we like it or not, people decide to be our enemies. They want to destroy us. So I think we ought to, you know, get on the bill and if we need to do amendments, let's start amending it."