Congress passes Defense authorization bill
Measure stripped of controversial provisions to ensure quick passage.
Congress Wednesday passed a Defense authorization bill that was stripped of all provisions considered controversial to allow quick passage.
The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Wednesday morning. The House, which had to vote again on the measure because the Senate altered it, followed in a 341 to 48 vote.
The prior Defense bill, which included language repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay men and women from serving in the military, was twice filibustered by Senate Republicans this year. The Senate passed the repeal as standalone legislation on Saturday.
Passage of the separate authorization bill completed an unusual Democratic effort to move pieces of the prior Defense bill separately to overcome procedural objections from Republicans.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., told the chamber on Tuesday night that they had worked to remove all language that caused concern for any member.
In addition to the don't, ask, don't tell repeal, deleted provisions include one that would have allowed abortions on military bases.
Levin and McCain had also agreed to drop a provision authorizing reparations for survivors of the Japanese occupation of Guam during the Second World War that had drawn concern from some members.
Levin said on Tuesday that the current Defense bill still contains "a lot of provisions which are critically important to our troops," such as authorization of health care for children of military members and provision of defense articles Afghanistan's army.
"There are provisions of policy, of training equipment, and readiness that cannot be just done by money, and these are important policy decisions, important authorizations, including pay raises [for members of the military]," McCain said.
The Senate failed to win unanimous consent in talks on Tuesday night.
In a separate complication earlier Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sought unanimous consent to add to the bill an amendment delaying repeal of "don't ask don't tell" until all military service chiefs consented. Democrats blocked what appeared to be the mostly symbolic request.
Failiure to approve the bill, which appeared possible until Wednesday, would have made 2010 the first time in 49 years in which Congress did not pass a Defense authorization bill.