Congress completed passage of legislation on Thursday to keep the government funded through Dec. 11 and permit President Barack Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels.
The Democratic-led Senate passed the bill by a vote of 78-22. It was approved a day earlier by the Republican-led House.
The legislation now goes to Obama’s desk for his signature.
The Syria language was requested by the president as part of his strategy to “destroy” the radical Islamic group ISIS.
Prior to the vote, the Senate rejected a motion by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to force a vote on an amendment to prohibit Obama from expanding his deportation relief program. That vote was 50-50. Five Democrats joined Republicans: Sens. Kay Hagan (NC), Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AR), Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Joe Manchin (WV). The first four are up for reelection in competitive races this fall.
Correction: The Senate initially misreported the number of votes for the bill. It is 78, not 73. This article has been updated to reflect that.
Joe Manchin went along for the ride on the defeated amendment. Keeping the government open and following the President on foreign policy was just too much in one vote.
A spending bill (continuing resolution only) should have been passed 6 months ago. As it is we came within 2 working “in session” days of shutting the government yet again. And the Senate and House are behaving as if they have done a grand job. To me, if they worked for me I’d fire the lot of 'em for incompetence. They are an incapable, ultra-partisan, dysfunctional lot that we have elected. We should rightly be ashamed we cannot do better at the ballot booth.
The Congress has now earmarked something like $250 million dollars for arming the laughably “moderate” Syrian opposition. In a sane world there would be plenty of money for things like infrastructure repair, funding public education, and science research at major universities. But instead we send money (some $250 million) that some GOP have said is wholly inadequate (they want to send $billions and have US troops on the ground) to fund people Congress calls “moderate” rebels.
The best part of this?
Tom ‘obstructionist’ Coburn had his ass handed to him with the loss. He wanted to do ANYTHING to block this…
I sure wish some other countries would look into America’s situation and agree to arm and finance us to overthrow our government. Sounds cool and exciting, huh?