More Party Conflict

The government was just shut-down for a month, and now the question rises of will the military get funding?  The Senate is in the process of debating the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allocates defense spending.  Her colleague Kirsten Gillibrand, the honorary Democratic Senator from New York, whose amendment to the bill, the Military Justice Improvement Act, regarding removing prosecution for sexual assault from the chain of command in the military, an amendment Boxer publically supports, is on the receiving end of controversy.  Boxer herself is personally invested in NDAA because she also sponsored an amendment to this bill which, in addition, would modify the “process for court martial preliminary hearings, called 32 hearings”.[1] Both Boxer and Gillibrand’s reforms are threatened by Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe who “demanded the Senate consider a list of amendments, some of them related to issues like Iran sanctions” – amendments that would create even more controversy around the otherwise periodic spending bill.  The motion to vote on the bill was ultimately blocked on Thursday primarily over partisan conflict regarding the number of amendments each party was able to contribute.  Senator Inhofe a member of the Senate Armed Service Committee, representing the Republicans, pushed for twenty-five amendments while the initial number set forth by Senator Carl Levin, Democratic Senator from Michigan, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, was six.[2]   Senator Gillibrand and Boxer’s vital amendments to NDAA, amendments that have garnered support from both sides of the aisle, are caught in the crosshairs of party conflict. The probability of this bill being withheld from vote due to conflicts over amendments rests with the majority party Senate Majority Leader Reid, who has the responsibility of filling the amendment tree.  He holds key power within the parameters of the bill’s amendments due to the Democratic control of the amendment tree, a fairly new process, never used until forty years ago that allows the majority leadership to “limit the number of amendments that can be pending at any one time.”[3] NDAA is allocating funds for defense – it’s comical to think that either the House or the Senate would let the bill go to a no-vote – but it did happen to funding the entire government a little over a month ago so anything is a possibility.  Boxer tweeted four tweets in one day relating to her amendment, demonstrating for constituent support of her and Senator Gillibrand’s amendments.   

 

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[1] https://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/progress-derailed-military-sex-assault

[2] http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/11/senate-fails-to-advance-to-defense-authorization-bill/

[3] Martin B. Gold, “The Senate, Then and Now,” Extensions, Winter 2012. Copyright, Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center, University of Oklahoma, 2. http://www.ou.edu/carlalbertcenter/extensions/winter2012/Gold.pdf