Why are Senate Dems stalling the vote on critical security issues until after the election?

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

The potential government shutdown that would have begun on October 1st was thankfully avoided, as both chambers of Congress reached consensus Friday on a spending package that keeps the federal government running through mid-December. 

With a critical midterm election just weeks away, neither party wanted to bear responsibility for a shutdown, especially one that could have led to the furlough of voters holding the power to voice their displeasure with whichever party they perceive to be at blame.

The deal that was struck to avoid the shutdown included a whopping additional $12 billion in aid for Ukraine. As we see the total amount of US assistance to Ukraine race towards $100 Billion, polling shows that a growing percentage of Americans are tiring of the US government’s financial and military support to Ukraine, and they want to see an increase in diplomatic efforts if taxpayer aid is to continue. 

The shutdown averting deal also included $1 billion in heating and utility assistance for low-income families, $20 million to address the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, and a five-year reauthorization for Food and Drug Administration user fees.

Despite addressing some items of interest, there are still scores of issues of extreme importance to the day-to-day security of millions of Americans that were punted to mid-November. Among the most critical of these issues is the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

The leadership in the upper chamber, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), reasoned on Thursday that the process of debating the NDAA will begin in mid-October. “While we have accomplished a great deal so far, more than any Congress in recent memory and we all should be proud of what we accomplished, we still have much to do and many important bills to consider. Proceeding to the NDAA will save us valuable time, enabling us to get more done. But members should be prepared for an extremely, underline extremely, busy agenda in the last two months of this Congress,” Schumer said Thursday.

Despite the Majority Leader’s position, many in the Senate, including the Democrat chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), were “pushing hard” to get the NDAA on the floor before a planned recess that will likely occur ahead of November’s midterm elections. In June, SASC advanced its $847 billion version of the NDAA out of committee, after it adopted a $45 billion topline increase during a closed-door markup of the bill. Subsequently, a $840 Billion House version of the bill was voted 329 to 101 to pass in mid-July.

Some of the more important items included in the legislation are related to American cybersecurity. America, like rest of the world, is still seriously lacking in qualified cyber personnel. These shortages are now highlighted as Iranian attacks, carried out by government-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups, have affected countries including Albania and Turkey.

The House version of the NDAA includes a provision that will establish term limits for leadership at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as part of the CISA Leadership Act. If the provision makes it to the Senate version of the bill and ultimately passes, officials appointed to lead the agency will serve five-year terms. This was added in an effort to see the term durations of CISA directors extend beyond presidencies. The amendment also specifies that the process of appointing a new CISA director will require a sitting president to do so “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” 

The House version of the NDAA also includes a promising provision that would order the Veterans Affairs secretary to establish a new pilot course for veterans and veteran’s spouses around new cybersecurity training programs. The programs would include coursework that will qualify for college credit, and that credit can be applied towards associate or baccalaureate degrees. 

In addition, new virtual learning opportunities and performance-based assessments would be created that will ultimately lead to federal work-based learning programs. Provisions like these, that would greatly help the severely underserved Veteran community, should always garner bipartisan support.

With rising threats like ransomware and browser hijackers only expected to continue to grow in 2023, politicians on both sides of the aisle must recognize the critical need to pass a robust NDAA, with global instability only growing as the Ukrainian War rages on.

Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the Editorial Director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, has been published by numerous websites and he is regularly seen on National and International news programming.

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