A majority of the Senate voted today to approve Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) amendment to the Defense Authorization act, but failed to garner the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster. The measure would have required “that troops get as much time at home as they spend overseas before being redeployed.” Currently troops are promised 12 months at home after each 15-month deployment.

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) had previously voted for such a measure. Today, however, with the help of Sen. John McCain (R-VA), he undercut the Webb amendment by offering a “toothless, watered-down substitute.” The measure would have expressed the content of the Webb amendment as the “sense of the Senate,” but would have no binding effects. The Warner/McCain resolution failed as well.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) argued against the Webb amendment saying, “I think we would demean their service if we were to say to them that there had to be a parity between the time in service out of the country and the time at home.” Martinez couldn’t have it more wrong.

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