Senate clears Defense authorization measure

The Senate Wednesday night passed the conference report on the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill by voice vote, finally concluding legislative work on a measure that has taken a tumultuous path through Congress.

The bill authorizes $441.5 billion, plus another $50 billion in emergency defense spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It includes language on enemy-combatant issues, once opposed by the White House, that bans torture and abuse of prisoners held by the U.S. government.

For months, a presidential veto threat hung over the bill if it included the torture ban, but last week President Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., struck a compromise on the issue, adding language that protects interrogators from litigation. "It's had a long journey," Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said.

The bill, which passed the House Monday and now goes to the White House, provides a host of other policy provisions ranging from expanding military healthcare programs to increased congressional oversight of the military's priciest weapon systems. It also includes a Senate amendment requiring the Bush administration to submit quarterly, unclassified reports to Congress on the status of operations in Iraq.

House conferees tweaked the amendment, changing the word "schedule" to "plan" in one area requiring the Bush administration to report on progress made in handing security of the country over to Iraqi forces. The administration has consistently denounced proposals that it says set any sort of timetable for operations in Iraq.

In another apparent bow to the administration, House conferees also added language that acknowledges the role Iraqi forces already are playing in securing Iraq, as well as a congressional statement of support for the successful completion of operations there.

Meanwhile, Senate conferees successfully made a minor revision to language in the House-passed bill that would require the Pentagon to give Capitol Hill 60 legislative days' notice before opening any of the 191 military positions now closed to women.

The Senate language requires the Pentagon to wait only 30 legislative days for congressional feedback before opening new positions. Current law requires 30 calendar days.

The House and Senate Armed Services committees signed off on the conference report last Friday, but the vote hit a last-minute snag when House GOP leaders attempted to attach legislation affecting so-called 527 organizations to the legislation. The move prompted a weekend standoff between Warner and House Republicans.

GOP leaders eventually bowed to Warner, who teamed up with other Senate Republicans and Democratic conferees in both chambers and threatened to yank signatures from the report.