Senate to battle over defense policy bill - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Senate to battle over defense policy bill

Final action on the 2010 defense authorization bill could come Thursday, with a slugfest to decide whether the $681 billion measure will include a controversial hate-crimes provision.

Under procedures set up by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate will vote on a cloture motion that would cut off debate and bring the bill to a final vote.

To do that, Reid would have to get 60 votes in favor of his motion. Leadership aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they expect more than 60 senators to vote for the bill, even though there is strong Republican opposition to including the hate-crimes provision.

There are two reasons to believe that Reid will succeed. First, when the Senate was debating the defense bill in July, 63 senators voted on a similar cloture vote to keep the hate-crimes provision. Then two weeks ago, a key Republican, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that he supports the bill even though he does not support the inclusion of provisions making sexual abuse, assaults and murder a federal crime if the person committed the act because of the victim’s race, color, religion, national origin or gender identification.

“Elections have consequences,” said McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, referring to the fact that Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, giving them the ability to pass hate-crimes legislation that had been blocked in the past.

The House of Representatives gave final approval to the defense bill Oct. 8, so a Senate vote would send the measure to the White House, where its fate is not entirely certain.

The bill includes a provision opposed by the Obama administration that authorizes a second engine alternative for the Joint Strike Fighter, which raises the possibility of a veto.

The White House issued a veto warning over the separate 2010 defense appropriations bill if it includes any money for the JSF second engine but has not definitively said whether the defense authorization bill would be vetoed for approving the engine provision.