Defense

Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) on Monday introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of unmanned drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil, less than two weeks after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) held a 12-hour long filibuster against this potential use of drones.

Ribble's bill, H.R. 1242, was introduced on his own and referred to House committees on Intelligence, Judiciary and Armed Services.

A group of Republican senators introduced a bill Thursday aimed at protecting veterans’ Second Amendment rights, even if they’ve been deemed “mentally defective” by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, S. 572, which would require that a judge determine if veterans pose a danger to themselves or others before they can be added to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which prevents them from buying a gun.

The Senate approved an amendment to the continued spending resolution from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that removes some of the “outrageous and stupid things” in the bill.

McCain said there were several items that he disagreed with in the $984 billion bill that would fund the government through the fiscal year. But he said his amendment strikes only $140 million in “earmarks” to Guam. His amendment was approved by voice vote after Democrats failed to table the amendment.

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said they were disappointed that the Department of Defense said it would not reconsider the ranking on the new medal for drone operators.

Toomey had written a letter to DOD last month stating his concern that the Pentagon decided to rank a new medal for drone operators not in direct ground combat above some other medals for valor such as the Bronze Star.

“To infer that our government would drop a Hellfire missile on Jane Fonda brings the conversation to a ridiculous tone."

Reid frequently warns the Senate of possible Saturday votes, but rarely follows through.

"This issue will not fade away," said Paul as he yielded the floor at 12:39 a.m. Thursday morning.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came to the floor Wednesday night to support Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

McConnell said Paul is asking a “pretty easily understood question.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) successfully made it past the 10-hour mark on his talking filibuster of the Senate.

Paul has been filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 11:47 a.m. on Wednesday. 

Kentucky Republican filibusters against CIA nominee for nearly 13 hours; ends effort at 12:39 a.m.