[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17966]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wonder if I might pose a question to the 
leadership. Senator Levin and I just met in preparation to move 
forward, hopefully, on the annual authorization bill. This would be the 
30th bill Senator Levin and I have worked on together. In the interim 
period, over the summer, our staffs have done a lot of very valuable 
work in terms of trying to sort through reconciliation between the 
House and Senate provisions. But it is our recommendation to the 
leadership that we try to obtain a UC to enable the amendments that 
would be brought forward to be relevant to the work of the committee, 
or the text of the bill.
  I am just wondering, what do the respective leaders have to guide the 
Senator and myself on this issue?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from Virginia that I 
hope we can work out something. We have this week to do it. It will be 
the last week that we have an opportunity to finish this most important 
piece of legislation. I think we owe it to our troops to work out 
something. We can get hung up on germane and relevant. One thing we 
could do--and I know we have had a problem here with people wanting to 
offer amendments on everything, as they have said, ``like we used to do 
in the Senate.''
  Mr. President, I have been through a number of Presidential 
elections, and we have one coming up in about 60 days. We have to do 
things a little differently. I hope we can come up with some way to 
move forward on that. One of the suggestions made is maybe we could 
come up with something where the Senator from Virginia and Senator 
Levin can look at the amendments first related to the bill. We need to 
finish the Defense bill. Next week, we are going to be able to 
legislate our hearts out on energy. People have been wanting to do that 
for a long time. Let's get rid of this piece of legislation, which is 
important. I hope we can figure out a way to move forward on it.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we talked about this a couple of times 
before the August break. I know he is concerned because this bill has 
frequently been targeted for nongermane amendments. I can recall that, 
as recently as last year, a nongermane amendment was offered by a 
member of the majority and actually adopted and became a complication 
in trying to complete the legislation.
  I say to the Senator from Virginia, I don't know what is possible. I 
just got in from the airport. I will meet with the Republican 
leadership later this afternoon to discuss with our colleagues what we 
might be able to achieve. I am certainly open to trying to move the 
measure along. I will consult with everybody on our side to see whether 
that is possible.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank the leaders. I only say that 
Senator Levin and I are ready, beginning tomorrow morning, if this 
procedural motion this afternoon at 5:30 is carried, to go to work. 
Hopefully, we can waive any 30-hour requirement, or whatever might be 
attached to this, and proceed directly to the bill. We both have 
amendments that can be brought up, and we welcome amendments from our 
colleagues. Again, the issue of relevancy is imperative if we hope to 
complete this bill this week.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I hope we don't have to use the 30 hours. We 
can start working on this tomorrow. There are amendments, as the 
Senator has indicated, members of the committee want to offer which 
relate to the bill. We should do that. Now, I hope we don't have to 
file cloture on the bill itself if we get on it. I think we should try 
to finish the Defense bill.
  As I have indicated, I went to Afghanistan. We have learned a lot, 
and we are implementing what we learned in Iraq. There are some things 
in Iraq that didn't do so well. We are trying to do better in 
Afghanistan. But it takes resources, and that is what this bill is 
about. I hope we don't have to wait 30 hours. We don't have to do that.
  We have a national election coming up. Speaking for the Republican 
leader, we don't want to be here until November 3, which is a Monday. 
We need to allow people to get back and work--those who want to help 
McCain and Obama, those who want to work on their own campaigns, and 
those who want to help others who are campaigning. I hope we can 
legislate on this tomorrow. Before we do that, we have to proceed to it 
tonight.
  Mr. McCONNELL. At the risk of being redundant, I will consult with 
the leadership of my conference and other members, and surely we will 
be able to get on the bill, at the latest, sometime tomorrow and 
proceed with the amendment process.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank the leaders.
  I yield the floor.

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