Congress Executive Branch Foreign Relations & International Law

Senate Begins Floor Debate on 2014 Defense Authorization

Raffaela Wakeman
Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 11:28 AM
On Monday, the Senate approved in a 91-0 vote to proceed to debate on the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, and floor debate began today. We've covered the competing bills on Lawfare, one passed by the House and the other approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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On Monday, the Senate approved in a 91-0 vote to proceed to debate on the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, and floor debate began today. We've covered the competing bills on Lawfare, one passed by the House and the other approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The bills part ways on, among other matters, the handling of transfers and resettlement of Guantanamo detainees: the House version contains the same highly restrictive prohibitions on transfer as previous defense authorizations, while the Senate language's is more flexible. Ben compared the provisions. This issue will be debated on the floor, given President Obama's renewed commitment to close the detention facility. The debate over handling of sexual assault cases in the military will also take center stage. Catch the debate on C-SPAN.

Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT. Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.

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