'Toxic amendments': Schumer prepares to fight far-right proposals in Pentagon bill

The Senate's top Democrat is urging both parties to reject proposals that could tank annual defense policy legislation, days after the Republican-led House passed its own version loaded with far-right amendments targeting abortion and diversity programs.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made the plea as the Senate gears up to consider its version of theNational Defense Authorization Act this week, which he and other leaders aim to pass before Congress leaves for its August recess.

The push from Schumer comes after Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republicansnarrowly passed a defense bill last week that rolls back Pentagon abortion access policies, surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender troops, and diversity programs in the military. Nearly all Democrats opposed the legislation.

Schumer swiped at House Republicans on Tuesday, calling the upper chamber's $886 billion bill "a prime example" of bipartisanship on national security issues, in contrast to the House measure that cleared largely along party lines. The New York Democrat also called for both parties to reject hardline measures included in the House bill.

"I certainly hope we do not see the kind of controversy that severely hindered the NDAA process over in the House," Schumer warned on the Senate floor. "Both sides should defeat potentially toxic amendments and refrain from delaying the NDAA's passage."

"So far, we have thankfully avoided all of that," Schumer said. He added that Democrats and Republicans are nearing a deal to add a batch of over 50 amendments to kick off the process.

The bill faces its first hurdle with a procedural vote Tuesday evening that requires a 60-vote majority. Once the legislation clears that bar, Senate leaders push through a package of bipartisan, uncontroversial amendments while Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attempt to strike a deal for votes on more contentious proposals.

Once the full Senate approves the measure, House and Senate Armed Services leaders will then try to reconcile their competing bills into a compromise that can pass both chambers and President Joe Biden can sign.

The most conservative proposals tacked ontothe House-passed bill are almost certain to be rejected in the Democratic-led Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance legislation. The quest for bipartisan consensus usually means proposals from the far right and left are non-starters.

Still, the Senate has been roiled by its own fight over the Pentagon’s policies to allow leave and reimburse travel costs for troops who cross state lines to seek abortions. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is holding up hundreds of senior military promotions in a bid to reverse the policy. There is no end in sight to the monthslong impasse.

Republicans are likely to push for a vote to undo the policy as part of the defense bill, even if it can’t garner the 60 votes that would be needed to pass. Tuberville has also signaled that a vote on the policy isn’t enough to convince him to drop his blockade.

Other tough votes could also be on deck, including limiting Pentagon diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, increasing or cutting the Pentagon budget, slashing Ukraine aid, or at least boosting oversight for the assistance.

McConnell said Republicans would focus on building up Biden's "woefully inadequate defense budget."

"It's our chance to keep the Biden administration focused on critical missions like rebuilding America's defense industrial base instead of the woke partisan agenda of political appointees," McConnell said of the bill.

Republicans, led by Senate Armed Services ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi, are already touting several conservative policy wins they included in the upper chamber’s defense bill.

The committee-approved legislation prohibits the creation of positions or filling vacancies related to diversity, equity and inclusion until the Government Accountability Office reviews the Pentagon’s workforce for those programs. It also caps salaries for officials who handle diversity and inclusion issues. Wicker also added a provision that requires all Pentagon personnel actions to be based on individual merit and performance.

GOP senators have also included measures to require the Pentagon to dispose of unused border wall materials that it is now storing and produce a plan to counter drug and human trafficking on the U.S.-Mexico border.

As the Senate reconvened Tuesday afternoon, Schumer touted a soon-to-be-adopted manager's package of 51 amendments, with Democrats and Republicans each getting 21 proposals included along with another nine bipartisan amendments.

Amendments in the catch-all measure include provisions to ramp up oversight of artificial intelligence in national security, compete with China and implement the AUKUS submarine technology sharing pact with the U.K. and Australia.

Senators are also poised to tackle the declassification of federal records related to UFOs. Schumer said the package includes his amendment to require the National Archives to establish a collection of records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena spanning government agencies that can be declassified for public use.

And while the bill doesn’t affect Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s abortion policy, it requires a briefing from the Pentagon on the issue, which senators are set to receive on Wednesday.

Much of the major work this week will occur behind closed doors as Democratic and Republican leaders wrangle over which bipartisan amendments to include in a package of uncontroversial proposals and which contentious measures should receive votes.

Abortion and other issues may surface, but Democrats are warning that attempts to roll back the Pentagon’s policies are a dealbreaker.

Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) over the weekend said it "would be very challenging" to support a defense bill that significantly limits abortion access and diversity programs.

"We will have votes on many of these topics. I don't think the Senate will support the legislation that's been promulgated by the House,” Reed said on CNN. “I think it just does not serve the welfare of troops, nor the professionalism and the training of the forces we need.”

Top House Democrats, meanwhile, are counting on their Senate counterparts to reject the most hardline GOP proposals.t

House Armed Services ranking Democrat Adam Smith vowed Tuesday that the lower chamber’s version of the bill, which he opposed, “will not pass.” But the Washington state Democrat questioned whether McCarthy, who yielded to his conservative detractors on the defense bill, would allow a watered-down bill to come to the House floor.

"Will Kevin McCarthy go with the overwhelming majority of the House? Or will he go with those couple dozen right-wing extremists who took the process hostage?" Smith said in a CNN interview. "Look, you strip that stuff out, we've got 360-370 votes for this bill."

Andrew Zhang contributed to this report.