[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9883]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. LEVIN. Before the Memorial Day recess, the Armed Services 
Committee voted 25 to 1 to favorably report out S. 2410, the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.
  The bill is on the calendar, and both it and the committee report 
have been filed and are available online and in print.
  As the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, 
Senator Inhofe and I hope to bring the bill to the Senate floor as soon 
as the Senate schedule allows. I have talked with the majority leader 
about it, and he says he is going to do his best, but there are a 
number of things that we can do to be helpful on this effort.
  Neither of us wants to be in the position that we were in last year 
when Senators were unable to take up the bill and vote on any 
amendments to this important legislation because of how close it was to 
the end of the session when it was brought up.
  Both of us are on the floor today urging Senators who are considering 
amendments to the bill to file them before the July recess.
  We would then be in a position--both of us, with our staffs--to work 
with Senators to clear as many amendments as possible for inclusion in 
a manager's package and to begin identifying relevant amendments that 
would be likely to be contested.
  Now, we believe if we can develop a list of a few relevant amendments 
that would require votes to start with when we first take up the bill, 
it would help us in getting to the floor. I believe that is the case, 
given the circumstances the Senate is in.
  We have an awful lot of work ahead of us. We don't have a long time 
to do it. If we were able to put together a proposal to the leaders, 
that we have not only the bill, which is obviously on the calendar, we 
have worked on a bipartisan basis to pass with the 25-vote majority--
which is minus 1 vote in the Senate--it would be our belief this would 
have greater practical appeal to our leaders.
  We think this approach would enable us to reach unanimous consent as 
to an initial set of relevant amendments to be considered so we could 
then move forward expeditiously when the Senate returns to the bill. I 
hope our colleagues will help us in this matter.
  I think it is in everybody's interest and it is in the national 
security interest that we have a bill before us. We have to pass a bill 
in order to go to conference with the House or else we are put in the 
same kind of position we were in last year, where we simply present 
what amounted to a conference report before a bill had ever been truly 
debated and sent. We and our staff, working with colleagues, put 
together what amounted to a conference report, which was not a 
conference report in technical terms but was in effect the work product 
of both the Senate and the House and our committees by process of 
negotiation.
  So our colleagues can be very helpful in getting this bill to the 
floor, meeting the concerns of our Nation and doing what we should be 
doing for our troops and our families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I first say and express my appreciation to 
Chairman Levin. We hear a lot of talk about bipartisanship and people 
getting along. That is usually just talk. In this case, it is real.
  We have a committee of Democrats and Republicans concerned about 
defending our Nation with totally inadequate resources. Chairman Levin 
has responded every time we have had some kind of a controversial 
matter come up. Then our staff--Peter Levine is the staff director for 
the majority and John Bonsell is the staff director for the minority--I 
have yet to call them when issues come up that we haven't been able to 
get this done, and this is kind of unusual. This doesn't happen in the 
Senate in very many committees.
  I believe, and have always said, the NDAA is the most important bill 
of the year, keeping in mind we have actually passed one for 52 
consecutive years. This is something that has to be done.
  We adopted the National Defense Authorization Act on May 22, as the 
chairman said, 25 to 1, which doesn't happen very often around here. It 
contains a lot of vital work we have to do and it is within the budget 
caps.
  I think it supports the training of the troops, the maintenance and 
modernization, research and development, and the pay and benefits. 
These are tough issues to negotiate, but we have done that, and we have 
it ready for more action.
  What we don't want is what happened last year. Last year we had a lot 
of amendments. We on the Republican side were wanting to have all these 
amendments. I think we are entitled to amendments. We did a count last 
year of how many amendments were on the average bill. It was something 
like 140 amendments. We didn't have nearly that many requests, but we 
were able to get them in.
  If we start now, we can do that. So I wish to tell my Republican 
colleagues that I don't want them to come back and start complaining 
later on, if we don't start getting amendments now so we can hash them 
out, find out what is acceptable, and find out where the opposition 
would be. But we don't want to wait until the end of the year.
  It got so close last year, as we were approaching December 31, and we 
all know that if we don't have a Defense authorization bill by that 
time, hazard pay is at risk, reenlistment bonuses won't be paid. Stop 
and think about the cost. Right now, if we were to hire a person in 
training to be an F-22 pilot, the cost is $9 million. However, the 
retention bonus for over a 9-year period could be $225,000. Look at the 
economics of it. We don't want that to happen.
  Last year we were able to get a bill. It is the first time I have 
ever participated in a ``big four'' meeting. Actually, three of us sat 
down because we had one no-show. So three of us put together a bill in 
a period of time, tried to consider all the amendments, and most people 
were pretty satisfied with it, but that is not the way it is supposed 
to happen.
  We are going to have a lot of amendments. We always do. The only way 
we are going to be able to do this is to get this out on the floor. I 
think it needs to be passed before the end of the fiscal year. So I 
invite my friends on both sides of the aisle to bring down their 
amendments.
  Let me again say how appreciative I am personally of having worked 
with Carl Levin in this process and with the staff, who have been so 
easy to work with, and so competent and professional.
  Mr. LEVIN. If the Senator will yield.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. I thank Senator Grassley for his patience.
  Senator Inhofe and his staff worked extraordinarily well with us on 
this side of the aisle. It is a bipartisan bill. It is a bipartisan 
committee. Senator Inhofe has helped in a very important way to 
maintain this bipartisan tradition of our committee. I thank him for 
the remarks, and I thank him and his staff.
  I hope our colleagues will listen to what we both are urging them to 
do. Let us take a look at the amendments now, instead of waiting and 
waiting and waiting. Because if we look at amendments now, we increase 
our chances of getting this bill to the floor earlier rather than 
later.
  I thank the Presiding Officer and my friend from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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