US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: Putting Our Troops Ahead of Politics

Putting Our Troops Ahead of Politics
By Senator John Thune

Last fall, Senate Republicans promised that if we were elected to the majority, we would get the Senate working again for the American people. Getting the Senate working again was not a campaign slogan – it was a commitment.

For years under Democrat leadership in the Senate, basic legislative functions went overlooked. Waiting until the last minute to pass important bills became the norm, and casting political show votes rather than striking bipartisan agreements was a sad reality.

But times are changing, and there’s new leadership in the Senate. In just the first few months of the 114^th Congress, the Senate has passed one bipartisan bill after another. We’ve already allowed more roll call votes on senators’ individual priorities in the past five months than Democrats allowed in all of 2014. Last month, the Senate passed a budget – that balances – and now we’re working toward funding our nation’s heroes.

Before any money can be appropriated, though, Congress must first authorize the federal government to spend it. For more than 50 years, the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate is now considering, has passed with strong bipartisan support. This year’s defense bill authorizes funding for our troops at the level requested by the president and provides key reforms that will strengthen our nation’s defense and improve training, benefits, and quality of life for our service members. It’s a strong, common-sense bill, and supporting it should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, Democrats are threatening to derail this year’s bill and its long track record of bipartisanship over demands to spend more federal money on nondefense programs. Incredibly, the president has gone as far as saying that he would veto this vital piece of legislation. That’s right: Democrats are prepared to block a bill that authorizes funding for our troops unless Republicans agree to hike federal spending on agencies like the IRS and EPA.

This bill is too important to get caught up in politics, and I hope my Democrat colleagues come to that realization, too. I’ll continue to fight for our men and women in uniform and send a clear message to the president that prioritizing politics at the expense of our preparedness and our active-duty military is not acceptable.

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