Senate Passes Defense Bill

 UPDATE- (4:48pm) The Senate passed the Defense Authorization Bill 86-13.

The Senate will likely pass a $662 billion Defense Bill Thursday after the House approved the legislation 282 to 136 Wednesday evening.

The bill has garnered controversy over language relating to the detainment of terror suspects. Under the original language, the military would be required to hold terror suspects in custody, a provision that the White House warned could tie the hands of both the administration and law enforcement officials.

Initially, the White House affirmed they would veto the bill. However, after the language was updated to ensure executive power, they dropped the threat.

Still, some provisions in the bill have garnered continued criticism from civil liberties groups, primarily language that promises “Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities” for terror suspects.

In addition, critics expressed concern that the wording of the bill was broad enough to encroach on the rights of American citizens, a fear that lawmakers tried to alleviate by adding text that states “Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”

“The president should more carefully consider the consequences of allowing this bill to become law,” Laura W. Murphy, the Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said in a statement. “We hope that the president will consider the long view of history before codifying indefinite detention without charge or trial.”

The Senate passed the initial version of the legislation, which did not include language aimed at satisfying the White House, earlier this month.

Senate Republicans Look To Sidestep Defense Sequester

Senate Republicans are looking for ways to sidestep an automatic sequester to Defense Department spending set to go into effect in 2013 as a result of failed super committee negotiations. 

Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H. ) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Wednesday that they plan to introduce legislation early in 2013 that would slash enough discretionary spending to offset incoming cuts to the country’s military.

“If the special committee had done its work, it would be over. It would be done all at once,” Kyl, a participant in the 12-member deficit reduction panel, said.  

“It could be done in an annual decision,” Kyl added. “Once a year we could decide to take the money that would otherwise be sequestered, pull the savings together that would offset that, and pass that.” 

Kyl acknowledged that fact that this process would require bipartisan, bicameral negotiations; a process that has become increasingly difficult to envision given the gamesmanship that has enveloped nearly every debate in Congress.

Senate Republicans told reporters that they’ve already spoken with House members that have agreed to maneuver around the automatic sequester. 

“The bottom line is that we will identify savings, we will present that in the best legislative vehicle  we can, and thereby offset the savings that would be required through the sequester,” Kyl said.

Graham hammered home Kyl’s sentiment. 

“My bet is that when this debate is all said and done, the Defense Department’s not gonna be gutted.”

Nuclear Commissioners Call Chairman A "Bully"

Four commissioners testified before Congress Wednesday and described chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Jackzo as a short-tempered “bully” who has consequentially hampered the commission’s efficiency.

“The level of tension among the currently serving members of this commission is impeding the collegial processes of the NRC and is obstructing the functioning of key processes between the commission and the agency staff,” Commissioner Kristine Svinicki testified before members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

In an effort to address this hostile work environment created by Jackzo, the NRC commissioners sent a letter to the White House in October expressing their concerns. While the letter did not call for Jackzo to resign, it stated that Jackzo’s attitude and treatment of employees could adversely affect NRC’s mission to protect health and safety at the nation’s commercial nuclear reactors.  

While some Democrats have expressed concern that the letter could be a political ploy aimed at making Jackzo, an Obama appointee, look bad, Commissioner George Apostolakis assured the panel that this was not so.

“I regret that partisan or other ill motives have been ascribed to the action that we have taken,” Apostolakis lamented. “This could not be further from the truth.”

Apostolakis, as well as the other three commissioners, continued to testify that Jackzo expressed “abusive rage,” created a “chilled work environment,” ordered staff to withhold information and ignored the will of the commissions’s majority.

“I do not believe that fear, intimidation and humilation are acceptable leadership tactics in any leadership organization - least of all the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Commissioner William Magwood remarked at the end of his testimony.  

Yet Jackzo denied the commisioners’ accusations when questioned.

“I have not bullied and intimidated career staff … I have never ignored the will of the majority,” Jackzo claimed.

But when Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked the witnesses straight if they have ever felt personally intimidated by Jackzo, they all responded yes.

“When you have four eyewitnesses that testify to something under oath, you know what they call the defendant after that,” Issa rhetorically asked Jackzo. “An inmate.”

“It is unprecedented, to me, to have colleagues criticize one another privately,” Issa continued. “To do it publicly and to have to sit on either side of you to do it before a committee of Congress, to me, is unprecedented.”

After sensing a lack of concern and remorse for his actions, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) heatedly told Jackzo to resign.

“You’re telling me that they’re all wrong and you’re right,” Chaffetz incredulously questioned Jackzo. “That, to me, is a lack of leadership and I hope there is some sort of change.”
 
“If you are going to do the right thing for your country and this commission,” Chafetz continued, “you should step down.”

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, echoed Chaffetz’s sentiments early Wednesday when he sent a letter to President Obama demanding the removal of Jackzo as NRC Chairman. 

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), however, expressed his hope that Jackzo would not quit and that they could resolve the issue among themselves.

“I have not come to ask you -all five of you - I have come to beg you to work this thing out,” Cummings implored. “The American people are tired of dysfunction.”

Chairman Issa concluded the hearing by assuring the witnesses that if this is not resolved, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will once again investigate management at the NRC.

Payroll Tax Battle Heads To Senate

House Republicans were successful in passing legislation Tuesday that would extend payroll-tax cuts to 2013 and would expedite a White House decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. 

The 234-193 vote sends the Republican-crafted bill to Senate Democrats who have arduously opposed the bill and have already signaled the bill would be dead-on-arrival. 

Following the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took immediate action and called for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans’ top senator, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), told Reid he needed more time to organize his conference. Reid, in turn, criticized McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on the House’s payroll package. 

A vote in the upper chamber, however, will likely be the House-passed bill’s demise. Senate Democrats said that they will continue to pursue a surtax on millionaires as a pay-for for the payroll-tax holiday, a notion Republicans have argued is counter-intuitive. 

Meanwhile, the White House, which threatened to veto the bill Tuesday, released a statement following the House vote that labeled Republicans as ideologues practicing gamesmanship. 

“This Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax hike that’s scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the President.  It’s not a time to refight old ideological battles.”

Moving forward, Congress must act on two key issues; passing extenders and an omnibus bill that keeps the government funded past Friday. However, Republicans have accused Senate Democrats for holding a House-passed, $1 trillion omnibus bill “hostage” until both parties can agree on a “more acceptable” extension of the payroll-tax package. 

Democrats have defended this accusation by voicing concern over the possibility the House would pass its version of the extender and payroll bills then skip town, forcing the Senate to take up the bills without any changes.

Congress now has two days to keep the government funded past Friday and just over two weeks before Americans see their paychecks shrink in 2013.

Senate GOP'ers Blast Obama For Threatening To Veto Payroll Plan

Republican leaders in the upper chamber blasted President Obama Tuesday for threatening to veto legislation ending payroll relief that includes language requiring the president to sign off on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. 

Following a closed-door luncheon, Republican senators explained that the balanced function of their version of the payroll tax holiday, arguing the Keystone XL Pipeline is estimated to produce an immediate 20,000 jobs and that other language rolling back regulations on the EPA’s Maximum Achievable Control Technology would ultimately save jobs. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered his support for the current GOP payroll tax package, calling it a bipartisan bill that deserves to be passed. 

“This has been a very balanced package put together by the House designed to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.”

McConnell also fired on Democrats for signaling that they may withhold a vote on the omnibus bill until language is changed in the Republican payroll plan.

 “It’s appropriate to ask the President and the Majority Leader why they want to undo a deal that was already made and threaten to shut down the government here a week before Christmas,” McConnell said. 

“This is a rarity around here,” McConnell enumerated. “We’ve got a bipartisan agreement on a number of appropriations bills and the President, presumably in order to create some political issue - which I find difficult to understand - has instructed Democratic senators not to sign the conference report on a bill they support.”