The Senate has been in a heated battle this week over passing a defense authorization bill that President Obama has threatened to veto. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell heightened the tension by moving to attach the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) onto the bill without amendment,
framing it as critical to national security. That
enraged Democrats, even those like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) who supports the CISA bill. Democratic leadership blasted the move by McConnell, calling it "a pure political ploy that does nothing to advance America's national security. "
So McConnell lost again on a national security ploy when Democrats and a handful of Republicans, buoyed by their victory over him on the NSA reform bill, were able to block that amendment. That left McConnell with nothing left to do but move to end debate on the full bill, bringing it up for a vote early next week where the outcome is uncertain.
The bill has garnered a veto threat from the White House because of an extra $38 billion in war funding that would help the Defense Department avoid the budget caps under the sequester.
McConnell's move came after days of legislative stalemate over amendments to the bill, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) accusing Democrats of blocking any agreement on amendments.
McCain tried to offer a handful of amendments to the NDAA earlier Thursday, but he was blocked by Reid.
Democrats have remained tightlipped over whether they'll block the defense bill from being passed. "I don't know what will happen," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters Tuesday. "I think I know what our plan is on appropriations; it's not as clear on defense authorization."
The plan on appropriation overall is to
block them until McConnell agrees to work with Democrats on ending the budget cuts built in with the sequester. But with Obama's veto threat in place, it seems likely that they'll block this defense authorization as well.