[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8707-8708]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           AMENDMENT NO. 1521

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, one other thing I wish to speak in 
favor of is the amendment of Senator Reed, my senior Senator--Senator 
Jack Reed of Rhode Island--to cut the so-called OCO budget gimmick from 
the Defense bill.
  I am on the Budget Committee, and I have heard very passionate 
protestations from my colleagues on the Budget Committee about the 
importance of reducing the deficit, not dealing with the national debt, 
reducing borrowing, deficit spending, and all of that. Well, when it 
comes to this particular bill, suddenly all of those concerns have

[[Page 8708]]

gone completely out the window. They are funding a significant portion 
of this Defense authorization with imaginary money, with an account 
that is not intended to support ongoing, continuing, baseline defense 
expenditures, and that is reserved for overseas contingencies and that, 
therefore, doesn't have to be paid for. So it would be a clear increase 
to the debt and the deficit to go down this road, and we would very 
much prefer that instead of using the so-called OCO gimmick to fund 
this authorization with deficit spending, we sit down and have a mature 
and consequential discussion between the White House and the Senate and 
the House on where our spending is going to go and with what accounts 
we are going to be able to do it. Before we start going account by 
account through the appropriations process, we have a plan in mind so 
that we don't find that certain favored accounts get dealt with first 
and then the rug gets pulled out from under the others.
  I think that is a reasonable way, and I support Senator Reed's 
amendment and his notion that we should have a bipartisan plan to 
replace the arbitrary sequester cuts with a balanced deficit-reduction 
strategy that includes, among other things, closing some wasteful tax 
loopholes.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________