Defense spending bill blocked in Senate

By Tony Bertuca / July 8, 2016 at 11:50 AM

Senate Democrats blocked a procedural vote to consider the fiscal year 2017 defense appropriations bill late last night in a 50-44 vote that puts Congress on a path to pass a continuing resolution in September.

Democrats have long vowed to halt the appropriations process unless the GOP assured them all FY-17 appropriations bills would adhere to the bipartisan budget deal passed late last year.

However, while the Senate defense appropriations bill adheres to that bipartisan budget deal for defense and non-defense spending struck late last year, the House bill adds $16 billion in defense funding that is not matched by non-defense increases.

The Senate vote, which needed 60 to advance, inches Congress closer toward a CR that likely will end in an end-of-the year omnibus package for all federal spending, including defense.

Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who predicted an omnibus deal in June, told Inside Defense that such fiscal gridlock was the new normal in Washington.

"I do think we'll have to resolve all of this in an omnibus . . . or whatever form the legislation takes this year," he said in June. "That's the new status quo, and it's not going to get better in an election year. It might still get worse."

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