Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently broke with a decades-long tradition in the Congress. And almost no one noticed. Congress traditionally has been sensitive to its Constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense. Despite disagreements and rancor on numerous issues, Congress usually cranks out defense appropriations and authorization bills each year. “Those days are… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Senate Republicans have mounted a filibuster against former senator Chuck Hagel, the president’s nominee for Defense Secretary. That’s according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Senate’s top Democrat made an impassioned speech decrying the move, calling it “tragic” and noting this had never happened before. Initially, it looked as if a GOP… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: If Republicans don’t agree to a “balanced” deal that raises revenues, Democrats are willing to let sequestration strike on Jan. 2nd — and the Bush tax cuts expire on Dec. 31st — Sen. Patty Murray said this afternoon in a major escalation of Congress’s ongoing game of chicken. “If we can’t get … a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As jetlagged aerospace executives and defense reporters head home from a frankly discouraging Farnborough Air Show, Washington is gearing up for storm of stop-sequestration events this coming week. What it will actually accomplish is an open question. Sequestration has hardly been a quiet topic this past week, with a pointed, partisan, and unproductive exchange… Keep reading →

McKeon just posted letter to Harry Reid demanding Senate stop #sequestration: http://1.usa.gov/LFOzHW. More from McKeon: http://aol.it/MbAL8K SydneyFreedberg

Washington: Thank god the debt deal is done. At least that threat to our national security appears to have been nullified. One of the sacrificial lambs appears to have been the defense budget but, as with so much surrounding the negotiations of the last few months, little is known of the details. The White House… Keep reading →

Washington: Those billions of wonderful dollars that live in the Overseas Contingency Operations funds — as war funding is known nowadays — may be the key to a final deal to raise the debt ceiling and save the United States from a default that could have enormous national security implications. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s… Keep reading →