Which Senators that Opposed Arming the Syrian Rebels Voted for the NDAA that Does the Same Thing?

Back in September, Congress voted on arming the Syrian rebels. The C.R. that contained that provision passed the Senate 78 to 22. 10 Democrats and 12 Republicans opposed it.

Here are those 10 Democrats:

Mark Begich (D-AK)
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

And here are those 12 Republicans:

John Barrasso (R-WY)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Mike Lee (R-UT)
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Jim Risch (R-ID)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

That allocation of funding to the Syrian rebels--something that will get the US even more entrenched in a violent conflict in a region where the US has a history of making matters worse--was included in the FY 2015 NDAA.

As I noted last week,

The FY 2015 NDAA is filled with wonders of bipartisan legislating: prohibitions on ending unnecessary weapons programs, a maintenance of existing prohibitions on releasing/transferring those imprisoned by the US at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, more military aid for Ukraine, more military aid for the Syrian rebels, even more military aid for Israel than Obama asked for, requirements to keep nuclear weapons in "warm" status so that they can potentially be used, $63.7 billion for the Pentagon slush fund, and the sale of sacred Native American lands to a foreign mining company.

Julia Harte of the Center for Public Integrity has a must-read piece up at POLITICO on the slush fund that is the Pentagon's Overseas Contingency Operations. Not that the rest of the Pentagon is a model of fiscal prudence. The agency has been unable to pass an audit and is only likely to be "audit-ready" in 2017, if even then. 

 

The NDAA passed the Senate easily as it always does. The final vote was 89 to 11.

Of those 11 votes, 5 came from the Democratic caucus:

Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

And 6 came from the Republican caucus:

Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Mike Lee (R-UT)
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Jim Risch (R-ID)

Here was Senator Gillibrand's statement on the vote:

“While there are priorities of mine that I have fought hard for in this bill, and I am proud they are in the final bill, I could not in good conscience vote in favor of this bill authorizing the arming of Syrian rebels,” said Senator Gillibrand. “I remain unconvinced this is the correct approach, and previous history suggests that arming Syrian rebels will be an ineffective solution with potentially serious unintended consequences in the long-term.”

Gillibrand pushed hard for a series of measures aimed at better assessing sexual assault in the military, in addition to protecting sexual assault survivors' mental health records to ensure that victims aren’t afraid to seek care because their records will likely be used in courts martial. Gillibrand also secured, among others, approval of a measure ensuring critical care for military children with developmental disabilities, a measure tracking the services’ progress on combat integration, and a measure directing the services to create cyber career tracks.

Here is Senator Sanders's statement on the vote:

“I am voting no because I have very serious concerns about our nation's bloated military budget and the misplaced national priorities this bill reflects.

“At a time when our national debt is more than $18 trillion and we spend nearly as much on defense as the rest of the world combined, the time is long overdue to end the waste and financial mismanagement that have plagued the Pentagon for years.

“The situation is so absurd that the military is unable to even account for how it spends all of its money. The non-partisan watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, said ‘serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense made its financial statements un-auditable.’

“I support a strong defense system for our country and a robust National Guard and Reserve that can meet our domestic and foreign challenges. At a time when the country is struggling with huge unmet needs, however, it is unacceptable that the Defense Department continues to waste massive amounts of money.”

I commend both Gillibrand and Sanders for their votes and for the reasoning behind them. However, I am disappointed in the senators who voted against arming the Syrian rebels back in September only to support a bill now that does the same thing (and many other bad things as well).

Those senators include 7 Democrats:

Mark Begich (D-AK)
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

And then 6 Republicans:

John Barrasso (R-WY)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Chris Murphy at least addressed the inconsistency in his statement on the vote, but his defense only amounted to the fact that there's a lot of pork for defense contractors in Connecticut.