Authorizing the Pentagon to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell isn’t the only thing that got flushed by the GOP filibuster this afternoon.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act—co-sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)—that would have made the Pentagon take a WTO ruling against Airbus and its illegal subsidies for its tanker plane—into account when making its decision on the next tanker contract award.
The vote to move ahead with the defense budget bill was 56-43 (you need 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor). Sens. Maria Cantwell and Murry were both yeas. The key ‘No’ votes on the Democratic side were Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both from Arkansas. (Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid also voted ‘No’—a technical move that allows him to bring the bill back.)
No Republicans voted to move forward with the bill.
Murray’s office tells us that Murray’s tanker amendment will have to wait until the defense bill comes back up—and they couldn’t say when that would be.
Asked his opinion of Murray’s Boeing bill and today’s defense appropriations bill, Rossi’s campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Morris would only say the “cloture on [the] defense [vote] failed.”
Editorializing here: That’s a cute answer, i.e. since the defense bill and the amendments didn’t make it to the floor, Rossi’s campaign doesn’t feel compelled to address the specific policy of Murray’s amendment (nor of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell for that matter).
Rossi, when pressed about his original statement to the Tacoma News Tribune that he didn’t think illegal subsidies shouldn’t be taken into account, did tell the TNT this today:
I absolutely believe the illegal subsidies received by Airbus should be taken into account when the Air Force makes its decision on the tanker contract. We don’t need a WTO ruling to know that Boeing makes the best plane at the best price and, absent unfair foreign subsidies, would win the tanker contract hands down. That’s what I’ll fight for in the Senate.
Watch Murray’s floor speech on her amendment here—where she says:
“Direct funding [$15 billion] … from the treasuries of European governments… allows them [Airbus] to roll the dice and lose … [it's] what separates them from American aerospace companies like Boeing who bet the company on each new airplane line. It’s what allows them [Airbus] to stack the deck against our American workers.”
Boeing and Boeing employees are Murray’s third top contributor this election cycle, having contributed $89,000. FEC records show that Rossi has gotten just $2500 from Boeing employees.
Footnote: Murray and Sen. Brownback? How does that work? Answer: Big Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas.
