After coming close to irrelevancy as the end of the current session of Congress fast approaches, the Senate Armed Services Committee may manage to get its 2006 defense authorization bill to appear again on the Senate floor—but it’s not on the schedule for Monday. Lawmakers have resolved a major sticking point: too many amendments. (DR, 10/18/05) Democrats finally agreed with Republicans that Senators must limit add-ons to relevant amendments. That means Democrats must find another way to legislate a commission to review the Administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…