Defense Authorization Bill Put Aside for Now

Today, the Senate cloture vote on the Levin (D-MI) - Reed (D-RI) “bring the troops home from the Iraq war” amendment to the Defense Authorization bill for Fiscal Year 2008 was 52 – 47. (In reality, the vote was 53 - 46; Majority Leader Harry Reid changed his vote at the end so that he could move to reconsider the motion. Special thanks to John Isaacs for his explanation of this process.)

After the cloture vote, the Defense Authorization Bill was removed from the Senate floor. It is now possible that the bill may not be reconsidered until September after General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker give their next “progress” report on how the administration’s surge plan is going.

So, what does all this have to do with Iran? Well for starters, it means that Sen. Gordon Smith’s amendment to attach his S. 970 Iran sanctions legislation to the Defense Authorization Act won’t come up until the bill is brought back to the Senate floor.