Roll Call: “The fact that the Senate failed to pass its own defense authorization bill doesn’t seem to have kept Armed Services Committee leaders from hammering out an agreement with their House counterparts.”

“When senators left town for Thanksgiving, they were working on their chamber’s version of the fiscal 2014 edition of the defense policy bill, with no end in sight to an all-too-familiar dispute over amendments.”

“After the Senate turned back a motion to limit debate on the defense measure 51-44 (short of the required 60 votes), Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., expressed frustration that he could not even get an agreement to adopt cleared amendments that have no substantive objection on either side of the aisle. But now, senators are returning to the Capitol with a deal essentially in hand between House and Senate negotiators. It is set to be unveiled at a news conference on Monday afternoon, according to an aide familiar the schedule.”