[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 200 (Friday, December 15, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S18712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1996--CONFERENCE 
                                 REPORT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the conference report.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I see my colleague from Florida is seeking 
recognition. The Senator from Arkansas has just about a 3-minute 
statement, if he will permit me to go forward. I will just take a few 
moments of the Senate's time this evening.
  I rise tonight to voice my very, very strong opposition to the 
Department of Defense authorization conference report that is now 
before the U.S. Senate.
  This conference report takes the unthinkable step of actually 
repealing a bipartisan piece of legislation which was written in 1983, 
by Senators Roth, Kassebaum, Grassley, myself and many others in this 
body. We set up a process for an office to test new weapons, in an 
independent, unbiased, untainted, and a very, very, realistic 
environment.
  If enacted, this conference report that we are now discussing would 
be a gigantic step backwards in the war against $600 hammers, thousand-
dollar toilet seats, guns that do not shoot, bombs that do not explode, 
and planes that do not fly.
  I truly believe, Mr. President, that if this conference report is 
enacted in its present form, the lives of our men and women who serve 
this country in the Armed Forces will be put needlessly at risk.
  I hope my colleagues in the Senate are aware that this conference 
report contains a provision that would virtually eliminate the 
Pentagon's Office of the Director of Operational Testing and Evaluation 
by absolutely revoking its charter. Mr. President, no one has yet 
explained any reason whatsoever to take away the office and the 
department in that area of our Department of Defense that tests weapons 
before we go into mass production. It simply does not make sense.
  Over the past 12 years, this testing office has been an unparalleled 
success. It has saved time, money, and, most importantly, it has saved 
the lives of our fighting forces by making weapons better and by 
keeping flawed systems out of the hands of our soldiers.
  Support for the testing office has always been bipartisan, Mr. 
President. Former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said that an 
independent weapons testing office ``saved more lives'' during 
Operation Desert Storm than perhaps any other single initiative. The 
current Secretary of Defense, William Perry, recently described this 
office as ``the conscience of the acquisition process.''
  Mr. President, I was shocked to learn that this conference report 
revokes the charter for independent testing of our weapons. I could not 
believe it.
  Because of this provision, I cannot and I will not vote for this 
conference report. I urge my colleagues to defeat this legislation.
  Mr. President, I want to make it very clear that I do not fault my 
very good friend from South Carolina, the distinguished chairman of the 
Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Thurmond, for this language 
that undermines independent testing. From all reports that I have, he 
tried to keep the office of independent testing alive. I have always 
known that this flawed initiative originated not in the Senate but in 
the House of Representatives. In fact, the Senator from South Carolina, 
the distinguished chairman of the Armed Services Committee, supported 
the sense-of-the-Senate resolution approved by this Chamber as recently 
as August that voiced the Senate's strong opposition to revoking the 
charter for independent weapons testing.
  Unfortunately, Mr. President, the Senate's position did not prevail 
in the conference committee. The wishes of the U.S. Senate to uphold 
and to support and to continue this office of independent testing were 
not granted.
  I want to thank the chairman at this time for doing what he could in 
conference to stop, or at least to delay, the elimination of the office 
of independent testing. I only wish that he had been more successful in 
keeping the conference committee from endorsing an absolutely terrible 
idea.
  As we begin sending American troops into Bosnia, it is wrong, it is 
dangerously shortsighted, for this Congress to propose eliminating that 
very office that has been so helpful, so successful in making sure that 
our weapons work properly in combat.
  Mr. President, I will be voting against this conference report.
  I urge my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I would like to point out an inadvertent 
omission in the conference agreement statement of managers with respect 
to Air Force Program Element 602601F, Advanced Weapons. The conference 
agreement increased the authorization of the requested amount of $124.4 
million by $11.0 million. Of that increase, $5.0 million was intended 
by the conferees to authorize the continuation of the High Frequency 
Active Auroral Research Program. As pointed out in the statement of 
managers accompanying the conference report, the conferees intend the 
remaining $6 million of the increase to authorize the rocket propulsion 
technology program described in the House Report 104-131.
  Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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