Democrats to block spending bills over Pentagon funds

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. Senate Democrats said on Thursday they would block spending bills for the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1 to press their case for scrapping mandatory spending limits that have been in place for the past two years. The move represented an early gambit in what is expected to be a difficult partisan clash over U.S. budget and tax policy in the next four to five months. Congress must pass a series of fiscal 2016 appropriations bills, or a stopgap measure, by Sept. 30, to avoid a government shutdown on October 1. Senate Democrats have been arguing with Republicans, who have majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, over a plan to use special contingency funds to avoid the spending cap, but only for the Department of Defense. No. 3 Senate Democrat Charles Schumer said party members would not vote to advance the defense appropriations bill, or any appropriations bill, until members of both parties have come up with a budget plan to replace the automatic spending cuts. The Overseas Contingency Operations money, intended to fund ongoing wars, does not count against the budget caps. Democratic President Barack Obama asked for $50 billion in OCO funding in his budget request, but Congress added another $40 billion. Republicans argue that the military should be spared many of the so-called sequestration cuts to ensure national security. They accuse Democrats of using the issue to camouflage a desire for spending on pet programs where costs should be controlled. Democrats contend other programs subject to the spending caps, such as medical research, police funding and education, are also important. "Our duty is not just to fund the Department of Defense, it's to fund the government of the United States," Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the news conference. No. 2 Senate Democrat Richard Durbin said party leaders had not decided if they would try to block the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which sets Pentagon spending priorities. Blocking the NDAA could be politically tricky. Lawmakers pride themselves on passing the NDAA every year with large bipartisan margins as a sign of support for the military. This year's NDAA has already sailed through the House. Obama has threatened to veto this year's NDAA, for reasons including the use of the OCO account and because it rejects cost-cutting measures he proposed, including base closures. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Bill Trott and David Gregorio)