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House leaders stall defense bill action

House leaders are holding up action on a major defense bill, demanding that unrelated measures on immigration and court security be attached.

The demand leaves uncertain whether Congress will pass the bill — which authorizes military pay raises, weapons spending and research programs considered vital to national security — before the budget year starts on Oct. 1. Lawmakers are in a last-minute crush to pass several top-priority bills before leaving at the end of the week to campaign for the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

The House and Senate last week were nearing a deal on the 2007 defense bill when House Speaker
Dennis Hastert decided it should become a vehicle for the immigration and court security legislation.

The House last week passed by a 328-95 vote legislation that would make it easier to detain and deport illegal and criminal immigrants in a bid to curb gang violence. The Senate in May passed a much broader immigration measure that also included provisions targeting immigrant gang members.

Hastert, R-Ill., wants to attach the Senate's anti-gang provisions to the defense bill, along with a separate proposal boosting protection of judges after the family of a federal judge was killed in Chicago. According to Hastert's spokesman, Senate Republican leaders had promised to help pass the court-security legislation before Congress leaves town.

"The speaker will not move the bill unless these two security items are added to the measure," said Hastert's spokesman Ron Bonjean.

Senate Democrats, including Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., support tightening court security. But the House-passed version, which would allow a judge to carry a concealed weapon, has cooled their support for the measure. Senate Democrats also oppose aspects of the immigration bill, which has drawn fire from immigration rights groups.

"Hastert has chosen the last hour of the last week of the session to begin playing games with a bill that supports our troops," said Durbin's spokesman Joe Shoemaker.

The House approved its defense authorization bill May 11; the Senate passed its version of the bill on June 22. Since then, the two sides have been working to resolve the differences in their bills.

Late last week, the two sides were close to resolving the last major sticking point — a House-backed provision that would lift policy restrictions on military chaplains when praying at secular events. The Senate opposed the measure.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Monday he would not object to hanging the measures on the defense bill.

"If you can do some good things — especially if they're security-related — then that's good," said Hunter, R-Calif.

Hunter's counterpart in the Senate, John Warner of Virginia, declined to discuss the status of the bill. Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, "opposes any out-of-scope provisions in the conference," said spokeswoman Tara Andringa.

The latest dispute between Hastert and Senate Democrats over the defense authorization bill comes as both chambers are facing a jam-packed schedule for their last week in session. The House and Senate this week plan to vote on legislation covering how terrorism trials and interrogations are conducted.

Also expected to come up for a vote is a separate measure authorizing the president's terrorism surveillance program. Three Republican senators who had been reluctant to support the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program reached agreement with the administration Monday on changes to the legislation.

"We believe that the changes we have secured will not only uphold these vital individual rights, but will also ensure that Congress retains its authority to regulate and provide oversight throughout the surveillance process," Larry Craig of Idaho, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a joint press release.

Also awaiting a floor vote is the defense appropriations bill, which sets Pentagon spending limits and is considered a companion bill to the authorization measure. The House and Senate concluded their conference negotiations on the defense appropriations bill last week.

Passage of the 2007 defense spending bill would bring the cost of the war on terror to more than a half-trillion dollars, according to a new estimate by the Congressional Research Service. Of that amount, about $379 billion is for operations in Iraq.