Defense authorization bill not expected until lame duck, Levin says

The House passed its bill in May, and both Levin and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) were eager to get the bill done quickly.

{mosads}After the Senate panel passed its bill, which authorizes $631 in Pentagon and war funding and sets defense policy, Levin and McCain had hoped that it could get
onto the floor in June or July.

But the defense bill ran into a political fight over defense
cuts and sequestration, which would have spilled onto the Senate floor, as well
as a crowded Senate calendar that took on the farm bill and cybersecurity
before the summer recess.

Even without the sequestration fight, the defense bill would
eat up several days of floor time with controversial elements like terrorist
detention and military social policies.

Levin had held out hope before August that it could
get done ahead of the election, but the quick
Senate calendar in September — as well as sequestration becoming a presidential
campaign issue — all but eliminated that possibility.

The Defense authorization bill has passed 50 straight years.
But the danger the senators run into now is that it will be thrown into a
jam-packed lame-duck session that includes the defense cuts in sequestration and a fight over the Bush tax rates.