National Security

House GOP leaders forced to delay vote on Secure the Border First Act of 2015

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McSallyThe “Secure the Border First Act of 2015,” HR 399 in the House and S.208 in the Senate, cosponsored by Arizona Tea-Publicans Rep. Martha McSally in the House and Jeff Flake in the Senate, has run into trouble from conservative opponents who point out that the bill does nothing about President Obama’s executive orders for prosecutorial discretion in deferring deportations, and from the latest “storm of the century” to hit Washington, D.C.

The Hill reports, House delays border security bill vote:

The House won’t vote this week on a controversial GOP border security plan that conservatives complained would do little to stop President Obama’s order to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.

Aides to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who controls the floor schedule, said the blizzard pummeling the Northeast forced the cancellation of votes Monday night. And due to the shortened schedule this week, the vote on the border bill — originally slated for Wednesday — has been postponed until a later date.

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The long road home from Afghanistan, American foreign policy going forward

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us-forces-afghanistan-AP-640x480David Hudson at the White House blog writes, Bringing the War in Afghanistan to a Responsible End:

[Tuesday] afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, President Obama talked briefly about the United States’ next steps in Afghanistan, and how “we will bring America’s longest war to a responsible end.”

Over the last several years, we’ve worked to transition security responsibilities to the Afghans. One year ago, Afghan forces assumed the lead for combat operations. Since then, they’ve continued to grow in size and in strength, while making huge sacrifices for their country. This transition has allowed us to steadily draw down our own forces — from a peak of 100,000 U.S. troops, to roughly 32,000 today.

The President announced today that 22,000 more troops will return home by the end of the year, ending the U.S. combat mission in December 2014.

“When I took office, we had nearly 180,000 troops in harm’s way,” President Obama said. “By the end of this year, we will have less than 10,000.”

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