Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid opposes Republican efforts to add 8 billion to routine Pentagon spending. He says the same amount must be added to domestic programs. (AP File Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats are putting the Republican-led Senate on notice: Don't mess with the bipartisan budget deal if you want to pass appropriations bills.



"Given the bipartisan agreement we struck last year, which is now the law of the country, we need to make sure that it's followed this year also," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday. "And basically, what we're talking about is to make sure the middle-class is treated as fairly as the Pentagon."



Reid said "some Republicans" want to renege on the budget deal, but Democrats will continue to fight for a fifty-fifty split between Pentagon needs and domestic needs.



"The security of our nation...depends on more than bombs and bullets," Reid said. "We understand how important military is and we support the military. But we also understand how important -- there are things (that) lead to the security of our nation, like the FBI, like the Drug Enforcement Administration, like the border security; all this. So we're going to continue to push."



The argument hinges on Sen. John McCain's amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would redirect $18 billion from the Overseas Contingency Operation account (war funding), adding it to the base Pentagon budget. The Pentagon has not requested the funding.



In response to McCain's proposal, Democrats will offer an amendment that "would add security and other funding to the domestic side, so we can maintain the parity that both parties agreed to in the Budget Act and both parties agreed to again when we undertook to move appropriations bills this year," Sen. Chuck Schumer said.



"And our amendment would increase funding for the TSA, to combat Zika, for local police, to fight the opioid scourge and improve infrastructure across the country. If the Republicans pass the defense amendment but then block a similar increase to middle-class programs, they will have broken the budget agreement and the appropriations process will come to a grinding halt.

"They know that," Schumer warned. He accused Sen. McCain of attempting to break the agreement.



"Will they (Republicans) have the courage to stop him and stick with the agreement so that Senator McConnell, who wants to move the appropriations process forward, as we do, will be able to do so or will they not?" Schumer asked.



"Republicans should be put on notice. If they violate the budget agreement with these amendments, they will be stopping the appropriations process on which Democrats are eager to move forward. We have been very clear from the get-go. The appropriations process should adhere to the budget deal passed last year with parity, 50/50, between defense and middle-class programs and without poison pill riders.



"We hope our Republican colleagues won't derail the appropriations process by violating that agreement, and instead, work with us to move the process forward."



President Obama has threatened to veto the NDAA, partly because it diverts war funding and "attempts to unravel the dollar-for-dollar balance of defense and non-defense funding increases provided by the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2015."