Senate Republicans quietly killed an effort to bar the Pentagon from investing in companies tied to President Donald Trump, his Cabinet or their families, rejecting a Democratic amendment targeting conflict-of-interest concerns.
The amendment failed 14-13 on a party-line vote last week during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s closed-door markup of its $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act, according to a committee vote tally released Wednesday. Republicans said they rejected a partisan attack on Trump that would have undermined support for the bill.
“It just seemed like a shot at the president, but the NDAA is for serious stuff,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said. “We keep all the cheap shots out, and we think the president and most of the other members would have considered that a cheap shot, and that’s not what the NDAA is all about.”