“The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls into combat, to my mind, makes little or no sense," Sen. Ted Cruz says. | AP Senate passes defense bill including women in draft

The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping defense policy bill that includes among its many Pentagon reforms a provision requiring women to register for the draft.

The Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act 85-13, but some Republicans voted against it because it contained the requirement to register women with the Selective Service System. The proposal was not considered on the Senate floor, since it was included in the bill that emerged from the Armed Services Committee.


But the issue loomed large over the final vote. Heritage Action, the conservative advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation, deemed the defense policy bill a “key vote” that would count on its annual lawmaker scorecards because of the draft language.

“It is a radical change that is attempting to be foisted on the American people,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said. “The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls into combat, to my mind, makes little or no sense. It is at a minimum a radical proposition. I could not vote for a bill that did so, particularly that did so without public debate.”

In all, Republicans voted 48-6 on the bill, which authorizes $602 billion in defense spending for the new 2017 fiscal year. Democrats voted 37-7.

Some Republicans, however, supported the inclusion of women in the draft Service, now only required of men ages 18 to 26. Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) backed it during closed committee markup, where a vote to strip the provision failed 7-19 and split Republicans 7-7.

“Every uniform leader of the United States military seemed to have a different opinion from the senator from Texas whose military background is not extensive,” McCain said on the floor. “After months of rigorous oversight, a large bipartisan majority on the Armed Services Committee agreed that there is simply no further justification to limit Selective Service registration to men.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had proposed an amendment, co-sponsored by Cruz, to strip the women-in-the-draft provision from the bill. But it didn't receive a vote — although McCain contended that he gave Lee a chance to offer his amendment and the senator declined.

In fact, Lee blocked numerous amendments from being considered on the bill because he wanted a chance for his other amendment on indefinite detention of U.S. citizens to get a vote. And that particularly steamed McCain when an amendment to reauthorize the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program was blocked.

"As I take pleasure in the size of the vote, I would also urge my colleagues that when we take up a bill of this significance, not every senator can have his or her way," McCain said following the vote.

"I have to say I blame a few senators that believe it's their way or the highway," he complained.

Tuesday’s final vote on the Senate bill was enough to override a veto threat from the White House, which has blasted the measure for attempting to “micromanage” the administration’s conduct of national security policy through reductions in the White House National Security Council staff, organizational changes to the Pentagon and limits on the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The defense bill passed the Senate largely unchanged from the version approved last month by the Senate Armed Services Committee. McCain had sought to add $18 billion in additional defense spending through an amendment on the floor, but the proposal — as well as a Democratic counter-proposal to add an equal amount of domestic spending — was defeated.

That will present a challenge for the bill as House-Senate conference committee negotiations begin, as the House-passed bill moves $18 billion from the Overseas Contingency Operations war account to base defense spending, while shortchanging the war budget the last five months of the new fiscal year.

Without McCain’s amendment, the Senate bill adheres to the Obama administration’s Pentagon budget request, including $543 billion in base defense spending and $58.6 billion for the special war account.

Still, the measure includes several significant policy changes opposed by the White House — some that are not in the House measure — particularly with reforming the Pentagon’s organizational structure and targeting the White House’s national security apparatus.

For instance, it eliminates the position of undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, splitting the job’s duties into two roles. It curbs the size of the White House NSC, which is also included in the House measure. And it ends the F-35 Joint Program Office once the fighter jet has reached full-rate production, expected in 2019.

The bill does not include many items included in the House bill that weren’t in the Pentagon’s budget request, but rather were part of the military's “wish lists” of unfunded requirements.

It doesn’t stop a proposed reduction in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, nor does it include a higher pay raise for troops. It also doesn’t authorize funding for an additional 14 F/A-18 Super Hornets and 11 F-35 fighters, dozens of new Apache, Lakota and Black Hawk Army helicopters and several new Navy ships, including a third Littoral Combat Ship.

All of those are in the House bill —and in McCain’s OCO amendment, which failed 56-42, four short of the 60 votes needed.