In a rare note of bipartisanship that defied shutdown drama, the Senate passed its annual defense bill Thursday after a voting marathon that became a referendum on Donald Trump’s authority as president.
It took weeks and a series of symbolic concessions to Democrats to jump-start the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy priorities for the Pentagon and authorizes its spending.
GOP leadership agreed to let the Senate vote on Trump’s National Guard deployments to blue cities and the Qatari jet he wants retrofitted as his new Air Force One, putting Republicans on the record over some of the most politically explosive decisions of his second term.
The amendments, each of which was defeated on Thursday evening, created a divisive spectacle out of one of the most unifying pieces of legislation considered each year by Congress.
But the fact that the vote happened at all defies the gamesmanship that has gripped Washington since a government shutdown took hold more than one week ago and sets the stage for the bill to be signed by the president later this year.
The Senate passed the bill in an overwhelmingly bipartisan, 77-20 vote, meaning it can now be reconciled with the version that cleared the House last month.
NDAA PASSES HOUSE WITH AMENDMENT TO REPEAL IRAQ WAR AUTHORIZATIONS
It took more than a month of bartering to get the NDAA across the Senate floor, with legislative leaders worried they would have to abandon a Senate vote altogether and instead negotiate over the House-passed bill.
“If we do not bring this to the floor today, this matter will not have time for deliberation,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned in a floor speech Thursday.
But the remaining hang-ups were resolved in the hours before Wicker announced a deal that granted well over a dozen amendment votes that cleared the way for final passage.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (R-AZ) dropped his demand that the Senate consider a bill blocking Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran killed at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, from receiving military funeral honors, while senators including Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee, allowed the NDAA to move forward with the understanding that concerns could still be addressed in conference with the House.
Cantwell, in particular, was opposed to language, as written, that places new “guardrails” on U.S. investments in China.
Of the amendments that were granted a Senate vote, Republicans rejected a Democratic push to limit Trump’s use of the National Guard in California, Illinois, and other blue states, with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) as the lone GOP senator to vote in favor. They voted down another proposal that would have required presidents to seek congressional approval for any mobilization of the armed forces for civilian law enforcement beyond 30 days.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sponsored the amendment on the Qatari jet, which blocked money from going toward its renovation as Air Force One, but it, too, failed on the Senate floor.
In one surprise move, the Senate adopted by voice vote an amendment to repeal the 2002 Iraq War and 1991 Gulf War authorizations that presidents have been using for years to justify Middle East air strikes, mirroring passage of the language in the House last month.
The votes come as congressional leaders search for possible off-ramps to a government shutdown that entered its ninth day on Thursday.
THUNE KNOCKS JEFFRIES OVER OBAMACARE SUBSIDY DEMANDS: ‘LIVING IN DREAM WORLD’
Senate Republicans floated the idea of giving Democrats a vote to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies at the center of the impasse, but the proposal was quickly dashed by Democratic leaders who want to negotiate a compromise that can pass with GOP support.
Earlier in the day, the Senate took its seventh failed vote on dueling funding bills that would reopen the government for a handful of weeks.
