Defense-bill stall riles Cotton

Need time to read 1,600-page measure, Nevada’s Reid says

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined by, from left, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., leave a closed-door GOP policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined by, from left, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., leave a closed-door GOP policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton denounced the Senate's top Democrat on Wednesday for delaying debate on defense-policy legislation, calling Harry Reid's leadership "cancerous" and accusing him of holding up the $602 billion bill to preserve his "sad, sorry legacy."

Cotton, R-Ark., also upbraided Reid for saying the bill was crafted "behind closed doors and in secret sessions" by Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. Reid said senators needed more time to examine the more than 1,600-page bill before voting on it.

Cotton served on active duty as an Army officer in Iraq and Afghanistan before being elected to Congress. He's clashed frequently with President Barack Obama's administration on national-security matters.

"We're delaying [the bill] for one reason only: to protect his own sad, sorry legacy," Cotton said of Reid. He also called Reid's accusation that McCain wrote the bill in secret an "outrageous slander."

"The happy byproduct of fewer days in session in the Senate is that this institution will be cursed less with his cancerous leadership," Cotton said of Reid.

Other Republican senators also criticized Reid for holding up the bill.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said he shared Cotton's frustration. "Why is the minority leader filibustering this important bill?" he asked.

McCain called Reid's delay "deeply regrettable." He said the Armed Services Committee voted 24-3 two weeks ago in favor of reporting the bill to the full Senate with all 12 Democrats on the panel backing the legislation. The full committee met privately to assemble the bill, a procedure known as a markup in Senate parlance. The vote also was conducted out of public view.

McCain also said lawmakers have had ample time to review the legislation.

But Reid, D-Nev., refused to budge, which means the Senate's consideration of the bill may now be delayed until early June when the Senate returns from a weeklong break. He also raised objections to McCain's plan to seek an increase of as much as $18 billion in defense spending, saying that domestic programs also are in dire need of more money.

"Republicans refuse to provide the needed funding to fight the Zika virus, to stop the plague of opioid abuse, to help repair the drinking water of Flint, Mich., or to provide additional funding for local law enforcement, our intelligence agencies and our first responders," Reid said. "That's just wrong."

Reid's spokesman, Kristen Orthman, released a statement highlighting instances when McCain and other Republicans have demanded time to read the contents of lengthy bills before being required to vote on them.

Orthman said that the Republicans wanted "to jam [the bill] through and rush out the door to a 10-day recess -- one of the many recesses the Republican Senate is taking on their way to working the fewest days of any Senate since 1956."

Overall, the bill the Senate will take up provides $602 billion in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 for the Defense Department and nuclear weapons programs managed by the Energy Department.

The legislative package prohibits the Obama administration from transferring detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States, requires women to register for a potential military draft, and proposes numerous changes to the military health system to improve care.

McCain and other senators said they also will seek to preserve a program that issues visas to Afghan civilians who assisted the American-led coalition as interpreters, firefighters and construction workers so they can resettle in the United States.

The top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John Nicholson, has warned that these workers are viewed as traitors by the Taliban for siding with the coalition and are in danger of being harmed or killed if Congress cancels the visa program.

A Section on 05/26/2016

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