Military Chaplains Tied to Defense Authorization Bill

Time is running out and the issue of protecting prayer for military chaplains is front and center on Capitol Hill.

We're down to the wire on the chaplains issue. Drew Ryun in our Government Affairs office reports that Senator John Warner of Virginia wants to complete the conference report for the Defense Authorization Bill this week. If he is successful in doing that, the conference report could be finalized as early as tonight or by Wednesday afternoon on the floors of both the House and Senate for final passage no later than Friday. The provision protecting the constitutional rights of military chaplains is included in the Defense Authorization Bill.

Senator Warner is facing several roadblocks in his efforts to complete the Defense Authorization conference report. More than 20 House conferees, including House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, Congressmen Todd Akin, Walter Jones, Jim Ryun and others, continue to fight for the chaplains and their right to pray according to the dictates of their own faiths. It now appears that conservative bloggers are picking up on this chaplains issue and spreading the word to their readers.

Another major roadblock for Warner is the issue of military tribunals. As of today, there is serious disagreement among many of the Defense Authorization conferees as to how to handle the legal proceedings for terrorists and what rights these terrorists should have as legal proceedings move forward.
 
In the Judiciary Committee, it appears we will finally see some movement on the nomination of Peter Keisler to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals today. What could very well happen is that when his nomination is brought up, the Democrats on committee will ask to hold him over one more week and he will get out of committee next week and possibly have a chance to get confirmed before the end of this month when Congress ends its session.

We will keep you posted on these and other important legislative developments on Capitol Hill.