[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17694-17695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this has been a long process and a 
difficult one for me to go through. Being the ranking member on the 
Armed Services Committee, I have had constant contact with both the 
Democrats and Republicans on this bill. I consider this bill to be the 
most important bill of the year, and I have said that several times. I 
have given several speeches up here in the last week. I had about 
decided with the last offer that was made by our side, which was to 
come up with 50 amendments, limit it to 50 amendments, the argument 
there is that would not be 50 votes. If you look at it historically--
and I have the numbers going all the way back for the last 15 years--
for last year, for example, we had 106 amendments, and only 34 were 
voice-voted and only 8 were recorded votes. So when we say 50, we are 
only talking about probably 20. Now, of course, the Democrats would 
only have 50 also.
  So what I have decided I am going to do--because I have to decide 
what I am

[[Page 17695]]

going to do with my vote--I am either going to vote for or against 
cloture on my own bill.
  That would be very awkward for me to have to determine. But I have 
tried to get ahold of Senator Pat Toomey, who is kind of the lead 
person on the steering committee and the one where most of the 
amendments would come from, most of the objections have come from. I 
have said: If you will pare that down from 50 to 25, then I am sure it 
would be reasonable for the Democrats to have 25. That is a total of 
50. Probably it would end up being maybe 20 recorded votes if you, our 
Republicans, are willing to bring that number down and say: Yes, we 
will go forward with this bill if we can have 25--move it down from 50 
to 25. Now, if we refuse to do that, I am going to go ahead and vote to 
support cloture and to support our bill.
  On the other hand, if Senator Toomey and the rest of the Republicans 
say: No, we want to have all 50--and I look at this list, and I see we 
have some Members who have as many as 9, and I do not think that is 
being totally reasonable--so if they say: No, we are not going to bring 
our number down to 25, then I am going to support the bill. However, if 
they do agree to bring it down--and I have already talked to the 
majority side about this--and they refuse to come down to 25, then I 
would join in opposing cloture on the bill when it comes up.
  So I want to make sure there is no misunderstanding right now. I 
would like to say that I could get ahold of everyone tonight. I have 
tried. They said at 7:30 they are going to make a decision. It is 7:29 
now, so I had to get on record. I do not have time.
  I will repeat it one more time. If the Republicans refuse to bring 
their number down to 25, then I will go ahead and support the bill and 
support passage of the bill through cloture. If they do agree to do it 
and the Democratic side, the majority side, decides they are not going 
to accept the 25 offer, then I will oppose and vote against cloture on 
the bill.
  There you have it.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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