Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has blocked an annual defense spending bill from passing, saying Republicans haven’t gotten the chance to debate amendments, the Daily Caller reports.
It’s worth noting what Republicans have not blocked: a provision to enlist women in the draft. While apparently indifferent to this seismic cultural shift, McConnell is blocking the National Defense Authorization Act over concerns with a Russian natural gas pipeline.
Must-pass legislation
The NDAA is considered a “must-pass” piece of legislation. It has passed every year for six decades. McConnell filibustered the bill, accusing his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), of blocking a robust debate. The vote failed 45–51.
“The Democratic leader … now wants to block the Senate from a real debate on a real amendment process,” McConnell said. “So, if [Schumer] insists on forcing a cloture vote later today, I’ll oppose cutting off these debates prematurely when they have really just begun.”
McConnell objected to the Democratic Party’s rejection of an amendment to sanction Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, according to Politico.
“Considering sanctions on the pipeline that fuels….Putin’s encroachment over Europe,” he said, “is certainly worth the Senate’s time.”
Democrats criticized McConnell’s move. “I think we should move forward for the benefit of the men and women of the armed services,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) said.
Women being drafted?
McConnell has said “for years” that women should have to register for the draft, Axios reported.
“Given where we are today, with women in the military performing virtually all kinds of functions, I personally think it would be appropriate for them to register just like men do,” he said in 2016, according to USA Today.
Some Republican senators, such as Josh Hawley (MO), Marco Rubio (FL), Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AR), and Roger Wicker (MS) oppose the draft-women amendment.
The amendment was accepted by the Senate Armed Services Committee, whose ranking member is Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R). Hawley, Wicker, and Cotton sit on the committee.
This comes almost a year after former President Donald Trump vetoed the NDAA over a requirement to rename military bases named after Confederate Generals, only for McConnell to override Trump and cave to the left’s woke crusade. McConnell is now giving in to the left’s efforts to destroy the nuclear family. Sad.
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