Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

  • Policy Issues
    • Countries
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Non-Proliferation
    • Nuclear Security
    • Biological & Chemical Weapons
    • Defense Spending
    • Missile Defense
    • No First Use
  • Nukes of Hazard
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Videos
  • Join Us
  • Press
  • About
    • Staff
    • Boards & Experts
    • Jobs & Internships
    • Financials and Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Search
You are here: Home / Middle East / Congress and President Obama’s National Security Agenda

March 18, 2009

Congress and President Obama’s National Security Agenda

by John Isaacs [contact information]

Published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Online on March 17, 2009

A key bellwether vote in the new Congress came on February 13 when only three Senate Republicans broke ranks from their party and voted with Democrats for President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill.

If support from three Senate Republicans seems sparse, try comparing it to the House of Representatives, where not a single Republican voted in favor of the stimulus. This opening salvo was followed by subsequent unified Republican opposition to an expansion of health care for children, an employment discrimination measure, and a housing foreclosure bill.

These votes, which brought unity to a Republican Party badly dispirited after consecutive election losses, signaled the GOP’s direction for the next two years–nearly unanimous opposition to Obama administration proposals. It’s a strategy similar to one Republicans used in 1994, when congressional Democratic majorities were swept away by a Republican landslide despite President Bill Clinton’s victory only two years before. If past is predicate, the GOP is hoping that 2010 will be 1994 all over again.

If Republicans continue to rally around “no,” there will be important implications for national security issues in the next two years. As I see it, there are three broad groups of executive-legislative national security topics: (1) extremely challenging issues for the Obama administration that will require a two-thirds Senate vote for approval; (2) merely “tough problems” where Congress has the power of the purse and can complicate and occasionally reverse administration decisions; and (3) topics about which Congress will do little more than grumble.

Read the full article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Online.

Posted in: Middle East, New National Security, Press & In the News on the Middle East

Tweets by Nukes of Hazard

Recent Posts

  • Iran Is Backing Out of the Nuclear Deal That U.S. Had Already Reneged On for Years June 10, 2022
  • Biden’s mounting nuclear threats from North Korea, Iran June 10, 2022
  • ‘Predictable’ and ‘reinforces’ need for JCPOA: Statement on Iran censure, further limitations June 9, 2022
  • Time to Reset the Narrative on Missile Proliferation? June 3, 2022
  • A World Without Arms Control?  June 1, 2022
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

820 1st Street NE, Suite LL-180
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: 202.546.0795

Issues

  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Non-Proliferation
  • Nuclear Security
  • Defense Spending
  • Biological and Chemical Weapons
  • Missile Defense
  • No First Use

Countries

  • China
  • France
  • India and Pakistan
  • Iran
  • Israel
  • North Korea
  • Russia
  • United Kingdom

Explore

  • Nukes of Hazard blog
  • Nukes of Hazard podcast
  • Nukes of Hazard videos
  • Front and Center
  • Fact Sheets

About

  • About
  • Meet the Staff
  • Boards & Experts
  • Press
  • Jobs & Internships
  • Financials and Annual Reports
  • Contact Us
  • Council for a Livable World
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

© 2022 Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Privacy Policy

Charity Navigator GuideStar Seal of Transparency