Reid: GOP obstruction is ‘endemic’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that Republican obstruction in the Senate has become “endemic.”

Reid was referring to Republicans blocking a third D.C. Circuit nominee in a Monday vote.

{mosads}“It’s hard for me to describe words of my disappointment for our country that once again yesterday there was a vote against a qualified nominee,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “No president should have to put up with what President Obama has had to put up with.” [WATCH VIDEO]

The Senate is now considering the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes more than $600 billion in defense spending for the Pentagon.

Reid said he wanted to consider two of the most important amendments — dealing with the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees and military sexual assault — but that Republicans are once again blocking consideration of those two amendments.

Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) has insisted on getting an amendment vote on his Show Your Exemption Act, which would force members of Congress to disclose which of their staff they have exempted from enrolling in the ObamaCare health exchange. 

Reid said senators shouldn’t be forcing votes on amendments unrelated to national defense.

“This is a serious bill and it deserves a serious debate – not to be bogged down by unrelated political issues,” Reid said. “If we cannot even vote on amendments on these two crucial issues … we cannot hope to make progress on dozens of other amendments.”

Reid has said he wants to complete work on NDAA by Thanksgiving. But floor debate on the Defense authorization bill is typically a lengthy process, with hundreds of amendments offered and dozens receiving votes. If final passage gets pushed back until after the Senate’s Thanksgiving break, it gives a House and Senate conference committee little time to work out differences by the end of the year.