VIDEO: Gay Marriage Measure Clears Senate Panel

By Andrea Salazar

Hill lawmakers are once again at odds, this time over a bill Democrats are pushing that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Unlike DOMA, which defines marriage on a federal level as being between one man and one woman, the Respect for Marriage Act recognizes a state’s right to allow gay marriage. Six states currently allow same-sex marriage: Vermont, Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, New York and New Hampshire.

The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in a 10-8 party line vote.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who sponsored the bill, called DOMA “discriminatory.” 

“DOMA prevents people legally married in a state to get the same federal rights and benefits that a heterosexual couple would get,” she told reporters. “It treats one class differently from another class.”

Republicans have cited moral reasons in their defense of DOMA, but today Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) made a new argument; that repealing the law would cost the government too much money.

“No one has paid into the Social Security system expecting benefits to be paid to same-sex partners, and it would be unfair for state laws to determine the eligibility for  social security survival benefits, which are a federal benefit,” Cornyn said during the committee’s meeting this morning.

The bill now heads for an uncertain vote in the Senate. Regardless of what the upper chamber does, the measure will likely die in the Republican-led House, where conservative GOP leaders strongly support DOMA.

Cornyn: Defense Cuts Would Be 'Arbitrary And Reckless'

By Adrianna McGinley

At the Hudson Institute Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned that sequestration following a possible supercommittee failure would have a disastrous impact on national security.

“I worry that our strategic thinking is being driven by dollars and cents more than common sense,” Cornyn said. “If this process fails, and I hope and pray it does not, then … the base defense budget would be cut 14 percent in real terms over just three years.”

Cornyn cited that the sequestration cuts would be in addition to $489 billion in defense cuts under the Budget Control Act and roughly $180 billion of efficiency cuts recommended by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“This should really be a time for rebuilding and retraining and not retreating,” Cornyn advised. “But retreat is the only way to describe what would happen if our military forces are required to live under this sequestration process.”

Cornyn said military leadership is trained not to panic, but “you can hear their frustration and you can hear grave concern in their voices that America’s strategic commitments are being defined not by the requirements but by budgets. They’re frustrated that under the sequestration process the cuts would be arbitrary and reckless.”

The Senator said however that concerns over how the Pentagon spends money should not be disregarded. Rather waste, fraud, and abuse should be aggressively fought. He specifically alluded to financial mismanagement at the Department of Defense citing that it has not been able to produce an “auditable financial statement,” and although the department is not required to do so until 2017, he said it was “shocking” that it could not do so now.

Cornyn joked that the twelve members of the “Super Committee” have more power than any group of Americans since those who wrote the constitution and said they must make use of that power.

“Failure really should not be an option,” Cornyn said. “What would it say to not only the American people…what would it say to the markets, what would it say to the world about America’s seriousness of dealing with these problems?”