The Senate on Friday, after it had approved a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating, dove back into the 2006 defense authorization bill but scarcely broke the surface, stopping work in mid-afternoon, when it adjourned for the day. Lawmakers won’t take it up again until 3 p.m. on Monday. President Bush signed the continuance measure, so Senators have until Nov. 18 to bring closure, we hope, to this latest budget saga.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…