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3.9 percent raise clears Capitol Hill roadblock

Congressional negotiators have done what some thought was impossible and reached an agreement in five days on a $605 billion defense policy bill that could receive final approval by week’s end.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who announced the deal had been struck between negotiators from the House and Senate armed services committee, said final passage might involve a few procedural roadblocks thrown up by people unhappy with some of the details but he was committed to getting the bill approved.

“We are going to finish that before we leave here,” Reid said.

The 2009 national defense authorization act, which sets policy, includes a 3.9 percent military raise that will take effect on Jan. 1 and dozens of other improvements in military benefits, including creation of a test program where service members able to take an unpaid sabbatical for up to three years.

Normally, reconciling the House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bill can drag on for weeks because there are hundreds of differences and because the Pentagon’s views also have to be considered. The Senate only passed its version of the bill last week. With lawmakers planning to end the legislative session of Congress as early as this weekend, negotiators set what congressional aides said is probably an all-time record in reconciling differences so a bill could be completed.

Reid’s commitment to overcoming procedural hurdles by scheduling votes to get around any attempt to delay action comes after the Senate was forced to abandon hundreds of amendments to its version of the defense bill after one lawmaker, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-N.C., tried to delay the bill because leaders did not want to allow a vote on one of his amendments dealing with how lawmakers’ pet projects should be disclosed. Reid said if it takes “a number of votes” to get around procedural roadblocks, “we will have to do that.”

A spokeswoman for Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman and one of the key negotiators, said congressional staff was putting finishing touches on the bill so that the measure could be taken up in the House of Representatives for a final vote as early as Wednesday.

Full details on the bill will be included in a report that could be available early Wednesday, said the spokeswoman, Loren Dealy.

Reid said that congressional leaders have dropped hopes of passing a separate defense funding bill but have agreed to include money for authorized programs, including about $70 billion in supplemental funding to cover ongoing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in an omnibus appropriations bill that will fund the entire federal government through early next year. Details of that bill, including how long it will fund the Defense Department, were not clear on Tuesday night.