{"id":54298,"date":"2018-09-27T19:34:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T19:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/27\/pentagon-budget-win-eclipsed-by-kavanaugh-assault-allegations\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:02:20","slug":"pentagon-budget-win-eclipsed-by-kavanaugh-assault-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/09\/27\/pentagon-budget-win-eclipsed-by-kavanaugh-assault-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon budget win eclipsed by Kavanaugh assault allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Capitol Hill could have been full of celebration Thursday over Congress\u2019 first on-time passage of defense appropriations in a decade<\/a>, an achievement many conservative lawmakers plan to carry with them on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the conversation over Pentagon budgeting barely made a whisper. Instead, all eyes were on the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford, a scandal that has all but overwhelmed other pressing business in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a first minibus spending package became law earlier this month, the House and Senate sent the White House an $854 billion spending bill that includes full-year funding for the Pentagon, as well as the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. With the completion of this package, Congress will have approved 75 percent of all annual discretionary funding prior to the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It promises to be a watershed moment, as the last decade saw Congress routinely use temporary stopgap spending measures, which have hindered the Pentagon\u2019s ability to plan and, as House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said Wednesday, dulled America\u2019s military edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose nine years of partisan politics, stopgap spending measures and kicking the can down the road have eroded our strength and encouraged our enemies. We have no duty that is more important than keeping faith with our troops,\u201d said Thornberry, R-Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But House Speaker Paul Ryan\u2019s news conference to announce the appropriations vote Wednesday was eclipsed by questions on the two controversies of the day: the accusation against Kavanaugh and whether the president will fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday was a highly emotional day, wherein Ford, a California psychology professor, detailed her allegation, that Kavanaugh tried to rape her in 1982, when they were both high school students. Kavanaugh defiantly testified that he was innocent and categorically denied the accusations against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the lunch break, in the Senate subway and in the hallways where reporters gather to catch lawmakers, nearly every question seemed to be about the Judiciary Committee\u2019s interview of Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if the appropriations win could have been a bigger story for Republican leaders if not for the confirmation drama, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn chuckled ruefully. (Cornyn had just pushed past a phalanx of TV camera crews.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just too many distractions, unfortunately,\u201d said Cornyn, R-Texas. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a pretty productive Congress, and I\u2019m not sure how many people know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t