NO DEAL

Senate Removes Foreign Election Aid Provision from Defense Bill

Sen. Mark Warner called his amendment’s slashing a “back-room deal.”

The Senate will not require presidential campaigns to disclose offers of foreign election aid as part of its annual intelligence policy legislation that has been incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said Republicans forced the language’s removal as a condition of backing the defense legislation. “If my Republican colleagues want to strip this legislation out of the NDAA behind closed doors, then I’m going to offer it up as an amendment to force an up-or-down vote and put every member of this body on the record,” Warner said on the Senate floor. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), acting Senate Intelligence Chairman, had said earlier this month that he believed the foreign election aid provision amendment, proposed by Warner and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), would be removed before the bill made it to the floor.