Republicans tie Trump’s Defense pick to funding fight

Congressional Republicans are using a short-term government funding bill to expedite the nomination of President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Pentagon chief.

 

A continuing resolution (CR) released Tuesday evening outlines a fast-track procedure for lowering the amount of time one has to be out of the military before he or she can serve as Defense secretary.

 

{mosads}Under current law, Gen. James Mattis, who retired in 2013, would need to be out of uniform for seven years before leading the department. The funding bill sets up lawmakers to reduce that to three years.

 

The fix, according to the CR, would also only apply to Mattis and not subsequent nominees to lead the Pentagon. The bill also lays out an expedited floor procedure for formally passing the change early next year.

 

The move sets up a fight with Democrats, who warned earlier Tuesday not to link Trump’s pick to the funding bill.

 

Rep. Nita Lowey  (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said she was “concerned” about the provision. 

 

“I wouldn’t say it’s universal, but I will tell you a strong majority of the Democrats think it’s a big mistake,” Durbin told reporters.

Democrat Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.), as well as House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), signaled Tuesday they opposed including the Mattis language in the CR. 

Lawmakers could have delayed the fight over the change until Trump formally nominates Mattis when he takes office next month.

But Democrats could have used the Senate’s rules to eat up floor time and potentially kill Mattis’s nomination through procedural hurdles. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) became the first Senate Democrat to pledge to oppose giving Mattis a waiver if it came up for a stand-alone vote next year. 

Top Senate Republicans, including Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), indicated on Tuesday that they supported including the provision in the CR. 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Armed Services Committee chairman, also slammed Democrats for threatening to slow walk Mattis.

“If we could get an agreement from them to take up the waiver for Mattis immediately then it wouldn’t be necessary, but they haven’t given us that assurance, which is disgraceful,” he told reporters.

Under the guidelines outlined in the CR, the Armed Services Committee would have five days to take up legislation lowering the retirement requirement, and debate on the Senate floor would be limited to no more than 10 hours. 

Mattis and Trump touched on the upcoming fight during an event in North Carolina on Tuesday night.