Thursday, December 11, 2014

Sens. Inhofe, Levin and Graham kibosh unanimous consent to reform bill

Three senators have blocked unanimous consent to consideration of Sen. Kerstin Gillibrand's Military Justice Improvement Act. Huffington Post has the story here. Excerpt:
"All I can say is the people behind this, I respect your passion to a point, but you're going too far," said [Sen. Lindsey O.] Graham, who opposes Gillibrand's proposal to take sexual assault cases out of the jurisdiction of military commanders. "Members on the other side of the aisle have been threatened with money being cut off if we vote against this idea. This is no longer about reforming a system. This is a political cause going out of control."
A spokesman for Graham said his accusation about "money being cut off" was a reference to a top Democratic donor publicly criticizing Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) at a fundraiser over her opposition to Gillibrand's proposal.
This article makes the common mistake of treating Sen. Gillibrand's bill as limited to sexual assault cases. The bill secured 55 votes in the 100-member "world's greatest deliberative body" last time it came up.

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