[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 164 (Monday, November 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8088-S8094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014--MOTION TO 
                           PROCEED--Continued


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will report.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 91, S. 1197, a bill to authorize 
     appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for military activities 
     of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and 
     for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to 
     prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, 
     and for other purposes.
         Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Jack Reed, Angus S. King, Jr., 
           Mark Begich, Richard Blumenthal, Benjamin L. Cardin, 
           Tim Kaine, Christopher A. Coons, Tom Udall, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Bill Nelson, Joe Manchin III, Mark R. 
           Warner, Debbie Stabenow, Amy Klobuchar, Richard J. 
           Durbin.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to S. 1197, a bill to authorize appropriations for 
fiscal year 2014 for military activities of the Department of Defense, 
for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department 
of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal 
year, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Begich), the 
Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu), and the Senator from Virginia 
(Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. 
Chambliss), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator 
from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and 
the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Donnelly). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 91, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 236 Leg.]

                                YEAS--91

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley

[[Page S8093]]


     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--9

     Begich
     Blunt
     Chambliss
     Graham
     Isakson
     Landrieu
     Rubio
     Vitter
     Warner
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 91 and the nays are 
0. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the first 
amendments in order to S. 1197, the Defense authorization bill, be the 
following two amendments. First, an editorial comment. These are two 
very important amendments that I think we should resolve. The 
Guantanamo amendment--I think most all Democrats accept what is in the 
bill. The White House accepts what is in the bill. The Republicans and 
a few others want to change what is in the bill. We should have debate 
and a vote on that. I think that is appropriate. Gillibrand--that is an 
amendment that has received a lot of attention, and we should have that 
debate now. It has received nationwide attention.
  So let's start over. The reason I mentioned these two, and these two 
only, tonight--I ask unanimous consent that the first amendments in 
order to S. 1197 be the following: the Republican leader or designee 
relative to Guantanamo and Gillibrand or designee relative to sexual 
assault; that each amendment be subject to one side-by-side amendment 
relevant to the amendment it is paired with; that a McCaskill-Ayotte 
amendment be considered the side-by-side to the Gillibrand amendment 
and the majority leader or designee have the side-by-side to the 
Republican Guantanamo amendment; that no second-degree amendments be in 
order to any of these amendments; that each of these amendments and any 
side-by-side be subject to a 60-affirmative vote threshold; that each 
side-by-side amendment be voted on prior to the amendment to which they 
were offered; further, that no motions to recommit be in order during 
the consideration of the bill; finally, that upon disposition of these 
amendments, I be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me 
first say to my good friend the leader that I wholeheartedly agree that 
arguably the two most significant amendments and most controversial 
amendments that have to be addressed would be on Guantanamo and then, 
of course, the Gillibrand amendment on sexual assault. I think we 
probably have different views and positions, but I think we agree that 
these need to be addressed immediately.
  My wish has been that we could do that and line up some of the other 
amendments but at the same time put ourselves in a position where we 
could have open amendments on our side. There is a great demand in our 
conference to have open amendments. I would like to get to the point 
where we could do that and have them somehow regulated so that they be 
relative to the subject matter of the bill, S. 1197.
  So that would be my concern, and for that reason I would object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I hope we can work on additional amendments 
beyond these two after they are disposed of. It is an important bill. 
We need to finish it before we leave here this week, and it is a big 
task to do that. It is my understanding that Senator Levin, working 
with the ranking member, has already had some serious conversations 
about how to move forward, conferencing, preconferencing, and even 
though the ranking member has been indisposed because of a medical 
condition that lasted just a short period of time, he has been in touch 
with his staff and Senator Levin on almost a daily basis. So I hope we 
can move beyond these two amendments. I would sure like to get these 
two amendments out of the way as soon as possible.
  As far as an open amendment process, I think that was then and we are 
here now. I am not sure that is going to happen on this bill. If we 
could work something out for a finite list of amendments or something 
that could help us get this done, I would be happy to be as reasonable 
as I can.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, would the majority leader yield?
  Mr. REID. Of course.
  Mr. LEVIN. The majority leader has said we have to finish this bill 
this week. If we can't make progress on amendments that we agree should 
be called up and are important amendments--one coming basically from 
each side, even though there will probably be votes from each side for 
and against these amendments--if we can't make progress on these 
amendments where everyone seems to agree we ought to start moving, I am 
worried about the prospects of finishing this week. Frankly, I am 
worried anyway. I am very much worried. It has to happen. We have to 
finish this week or else we can't get to conference. We have to get to 
conference and then come back. So I hope that in the morning perhaps 
the majority leader might renew that unanimous consent request because 
the objection to it is going to make it less likely we can get our bill 
passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, to the senior Senator from Michigan, the 
chairman of this most prestigious and important committee, what I think 
would be a real shame is if we wind up having to file cloture on the 
bill as it is written. I know the committee did great work. They worked 
very hard, and the vast majority of the time they did it on a 
bipartisan basis to get the bill to where it is now. It would be a 
shame to have to file cloture on the bill itself. I would hope that if 
we have to do that, we can get cloture on it and get on with the 
conference. But I am very troubled. Today is Monday, and I would be 
happy to renew my request as soon as I get here in the morning, but I 
would hope that the people who are working on these two important 
pieces of legislation at the very least would come and start talking 
about them. Everyone knows what the amendments are. They may not be 
able to pass a test on every word in the amendments, but we know the 
concept of the amendments. Let them come and start talking about these 
amendments. To this stage, they have been negotiated and debated in the 
press. Let's debate them here on the Senate floor.
  Mr. INHOFE. Would the leader yield?
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield for a question.
  Mr. INHOFE. I hope the leader is aware that I have just as strong 
feelings about these amendments. It is a starting place. And the leader 
said we need to be talking about it. I came down today and talked about 
both of these amendments at some length.
  While I say we may not be in agreement with the amendments, they need 
to be debated. Historically, every year since I have been here, I say 
through the Chair, we have had a lot of amendments. We have always been 
able to get it through--50, 51 years-- Mr. REID. It was 52, I think.
  Mr. INHOFE. Fifty-two, and we are going to do it this time and I hope 
satisfy some of the concerns in our caucus at the same time.
  I thank the leader for his comments, and I want him to know we are in 
agreement on getting to these amendments.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before I yield to my friend from Michigan, 
there are things in this bill that are not resolved in the Defense 
appropriations bill that authorize things to be done in the military 
that can only be done by authorizing them. So I myself am very 
concerned about being able to move forward on this bill. We do not live 
in a vacuum. We have to work something out with the appropriate 
committees in the House of Representatives and then have both the House 
and the Senate vote. That is what conferences are all about. Time is of 
the essence.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oklahoma, my 
ranking member, the ranking member on

[[Page S8094]]

Armed Services, because I know how much he wants to get to this bill. I 
do not understand the objection that I know is not his personally but 
comes from his side. I do not understand how we are advancing this bill 
and advancing the cause of reaching debate on amendments on this bill 
by objecting to move to the amendments that I think everybody wants to 
debate. I do not understand how that advances any cause. I know this is 
not the approach of the Senator from Oklahoma. We have a very 
bipartisan committee.
  Anyway, I will leave it at that. I hope in the morning we can find a 
way to do what I think everybody says they want to do, which is to 
begin an amendment process on this bill.
  I want to end by again thanking him. He has not only had his personal 
health issue, but, as the majority leader and all of us know in this 
body, he has had a very tragic loss, and he is working very hard 
through that. We doubly and triplely appreciate his service to this 
body and his bipartisan work on the Armed Services Committee. It is 
invaluable. I don't want anything that I say tonight about being 
frustrated that we cannot start debate on two amendments that everybody 
wants to debate in any way to imply anything other than a very positive 
relationship that we have.
  Mr. REID. Reclaiming my time, I ask unanimous consent to yield back 
all postcloture time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  The question is on the motion to proceed.
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________