House panel weighs fallback plan for Defense authorization bill

With the fate of the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill uncertain in the Senate, members of the House Armed Services Committee huddled shortly before the August recess to discuss strategies for getting at least a bare-bones Pentagon policy measure to President Bush's desk this year.

The bipartisan meeting was called by House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Wednesday to discuss options in the event the Senate does not take up the authorization measure before Congress adjourns for the year or does not approve the measure in time for formal conference negotiations on the bill.

Among the fallback strategies discussed was paring down the bill to include only the most important provisions or attaching some version of the bill to the anticipated continuing resolution, aides and lawmakers said. Skelton would not discuss the details of the meeting, other than to say, "Stay tuned." He added, "We're doing our best."

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a former chairman of the panel, had been working before the recess to gain approval for a unanimous consent agreement that would limit debate on the bill to germane amendments. But Republicans objected to the UC when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered it on the floor July 26. Five days later, Republicans defeated a cloture resolution on the measure.

"It happens to be the politics of the Senate that's the problem," said House Armed Services Air and Land Subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii. The House passed its version of the defense authorization measure in May. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version April 30.

There were no decisions reached during the closed-door strategy session, said House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee ranking member John McHugh, R-N.Y. Members discussed the "lay of the land" and what could be done to shepherd some of the most important provisions through Congress in the event the bill remains tied up in the Senate. Committee members also did not draw up a list of must-pass provisions, McHugh said.

"There is no rule book that says the following are must-dos," he added.

But one must-pass provision could be the authorization of a troop pay raise, often considered one of the most important pieces of the massive authorization measure. Both the House-passed version and the Senate Armed Services Committee's bill include a 3.9 percent pay raise -- a half a point higher than President Bush requested. A week before the recess, Levin said he that he believes approving a paired-down measure would set a "terrible precedent" for handling the bill, which Congress has approved every year since at least 1961.