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OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Senate movement on sequester
The Topline: The Senate took a bipartisan step forward Thursday on sequestration, crafting a bipartisan agreement to force the Obama administration — and President Obama himself — to issue multiple reports on the impact of the automatic cuts set to hit in January.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) combined their two amendments to get reports about the impact of sequestration on both the defense and non-defense side of the spending cuts, which total roughly $500 billion each over the next decade. The joint amendment passed by voice vote.
“I was proud to work with Sen. McCain to come together on a bipartisan compromise to make sure Congress has the information we need on all of sequestration,” Murray said on the floor.
On the other side of the Capitol, however, there was only pessimism to be found Thursday.
At a breakfast roundtable with reporters Thursday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) questioned whether Congress was “mature enough” to fix sequestration, and suggested it was time to “kick it down the road” and delay the cuts.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) also did not sound overly optimistic speaking at the Bloomberg Government Defense Conference Thursday. Moran said that until House Republicans dropped their "no new revenues" pledge, a deal would not be possible.
“The problem is Republican leaders in the House — they will not talk about revenues,” Levin told reporters after speaking at the Bloomberg conference. “As long as they take that absolute stand they can’t get anything done.”
Next steps for sequestration: The Senate sequester legislation — which would still need to be passed by the House — does not directly move toward actually averting the automatic cuts themselves, but it can be viewed as one bit of momentum for senators to find a solution themselves. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that he does not agree with one proposal floated last week by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), which would cut $100 billion from defense and non-defense spending in the deficit-reduction deal, rather than $500 billion.
But both McCain and Levin dismissed that as an obstacle in their talks, with McCain saying the heads of the Armed Services panels — Levin and his House counterpart, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) — can have “frank discussions” about what should be done, even if they disagree.
Levin said the $100 billion proposal
was just one suggestion, and that he’s most concerned right now with finding a broad
set of principles the two sides can agree upon to give the private sector some
confidence than going back to figure out the details afterward.
“I don’t think I see a huge deal before the election, so let’s do what we can,” he said.
To plan or not to
plan: House
Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) was asked at the
press breakfast whether he thought the Pentagon — the king of planners — really
was not planning for sequestration.
“It’s hard for me to believe that the military people that I know would just sit on their hands and not plan for this,” McKeon said, echoing a suspicion many in the defense world have expressed that privately the Pentagon is making preparations.
A Pentagon press secretary, however, again shot down the notion the Pentagon is making plans, saying the department has not “been directed to do so.”
“And if we start planning for sequestration, then that puts us in a very tough position with respect to very sound defense strategy that we outlined in January,” George Little said. Of course, if the Senate sequestration reporting provision does become law, the Pentagon will have to drop its “thou shalt not plan” stance.
More sequestration job reports: The administration's silence on implementing sequestration hasn't stopped outside groups from touting their own devastating findings, and another grim jobs report was released Thursday. This time, the number of potential jobs losses inched up even higher, to 1.2 million jobs, according to the report from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). The job losses include more than 1 million private-sector workers and 200,000 military jobs, and the report says the unemployment rate would rise by 0.7 percent.
The NAM study adds to the ammo of defense advocates, who have also been citing a study from the Aerospace Industries Association that found 1 million jobs would be gone under sequestration. An AIA spokesman said the trade association supports the sequestration reporting amendment that passed Thursday.
Which sequestration measure?: Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) issued a joint press release after the sequestration amendment was included in the farm bill with the headline: “Senate Adopts Thune-Sessions Sequestration Transparency Plan.” While it’s true the amendment that passed is quite similar to legislation offered by Thune and Sessions, the amendment that passed was in fact an agreement between Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who are not mentioned in the release. The senators try to offer a bit of justification in the statement, saying: “Thune and Sessions were the first senators to call for more transparency from the administration on sequestration.”
Panetta’s newest enemy, jetlag: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is giving two speeches in the next 20 hours shortly after returning from a quick trip to Saudi Arabia. Panetta led the U.S. delegation to offer condolences after the death of Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The secretary is speaking at Thursday evening at the National Press Club, where he’s being awarded the Center for National Policy’s 2012 Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award. Friday morning, Panetta will speak at the DOD Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention Conference.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
— Administration: Hot mic was 'stating the obvious'
— McKeon: Time to punt on defense cuts
— Clinton: Nuclear Iran would spark arms race
— Senate demands answers from Obama on
cuts
— McKeon won’t push to reinstate
DADT
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