Robert Dole

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. No second-degree amendments. That would be followed by an amendment by the Senator from Georgia, Senator Nunn. As I understand, there is not any time agreement on [[Page S 11304]] that so we do not know when that vote will come. So that we will do those two tonight at least. Unanimous-Consent Agreement This is the time agreement we wanted to obtain earlier. We could not do that. So I ask unanimous consent that tomorrow morning, after consultation with the managers--they can determine when to bring it up--Senator Thurmond be recognized to offer an amendment regarding title XXXI of the bill; that immediately after the reading of the amendment, Senator Exon be recognized to offer a second-degree amendment to the Thurmond amendment, and that there be 45 minutes of debate under the control of Senator Thurmond and 90 minutes of debate under the control of Senator Exon; further, that following the expiration or yielding of time, the Exon amendment be laid aside and Senator Reid be recognized to offer his amendment on tritium on which there be 60 minutes, to be divided 40 minutes under the control of Senator Reid and 20 minutes under the control of Senator Thurmond; and following that debate, the amendment be laid aside and Senator McCain be recognized to offer an amendment on competition, on which there be 10 minutes for debate, to be equally divided in the usual form; to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the Exon amendment, to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the Reid amendment, to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the McCain amendment, to be followed by a vote on the Thurmond amendment, as amended, if amended. So we are talking about four amendments.

Mr. DOLE. I said 90--

Mr. DOLE. Did I short him? Good. I gave him 45 minutes. He wants 70.

Mr. DOLE. Make that 70 instead of 45.

Mr. DOLE. Hopefully, when this happens tomorrow sometime, we will not take all this time, but we may. That would be 3 hours plus four votes. You are talking about a big, big time. I would also ask consent--to accommodate Senator Bumpers --that following the disposition of this agreement, whenever it occurs, the previous unanimous consent, Senator Bumpers offer his amendment on defense firewalls, 1 hour of debate to be equally divided in the usual form, no second-degree amendment be in order, and that following the conclusion or yielding back of time, the Senate vote on or in relation to the amendment.

Mr. DOLE. Now, I might say to my colleagues, I know there are dozens of amendments out there. We are trying to accommodate those who have the shortest times. If we have 20 minutes equally divided or 30 minutes, we will try to rotate back and forth. It seems to me, if we are going to finish the bill, if everybody gets 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, it is going to be 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon before we take up 2 or 3 amendments here, and we cannot be on this bill Saturday. I am not certain when we will get back on the bill. Senator Thurmond needs to leave tomorrow for an important family matter on Saturday. We will have votes on Saturday. We will be on at least one or two appropriations bills. If we should, by some miracle, finish this bill early tomorrow, we could go to Treasury-Postal tomorrow evening. If not, that will begin hopefully about 9 o'clock on Saturday morning. And there are two amendments there that may require some debate. Beyond that, it should not take very long, according to the managers. Following that, it would be our intention either to move to welfare or to the Work Opportunity Act, or the Interior Appropriations bill. So somebody asked me, what about Saturday. We have been saying for the last 2 weeks there will be votes on this Saturday and tomorrow. The day after tomorrow is Saturday, and there will be votes on Saturday, August 5. Amendment No. 2089 Mr. COHEN addressed the Chair.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I think after this vote, I talked to the managers and what they would like to do, and I say this to all my colleagues, is to stay here. There are probably 25, 35 amendments that can be accepted, some on each side of the aisle. They are willing to stay here, and that will take a big amount of the amendments that are pending. We now changed our list and, hopefully, before we go out tonight or tomorrow morning, we will have an agreement these will be the only amendments in order. That will at least give us a finite list. It is pretty long. We have 190-some amendments and everybody wants 2 hours. So I do not think we can make that by tomorrow night, the way I look at it. But you have to be optimistic around here. I [[Page S 11307]] know Senator Thurmond is, he is going to finish it by 6 tomorrow night, or earlier, more or less. This will be the last vote tonight, but I say to my colleagues on both sides, the managers are here, the staffs are here. A lot of the amendments have great merit and are going to be accepted. This is an opportunity to have your amendment accepted. Then the managers will determine what time we start tomorrow morning and whether we start on the agreement we have or some other amendment. That will be up to the managers. I thank my colleagues.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if I could have my colleagues' attention? If I can just suggest the absence after quorum for 1 minute, we are about to type out the consent agreement. If we can reach an agreement there will be no more votes this evening. If not, we will just have to work through it. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I join my friend from Connecticut in thanking the distinguished Senator and chairman of the committee for his cooperation.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, the amendment I propose today requires the Secretary of Defense to initiate a review of the ammunition procurement and management programs of the Department of Defense. The munitions industrial base has undergone dramatic reductions in the years following the Vietnam war. Built principally during World War II, the base consisted of a large number of expansive, government-owned manufacturing plants combined with hundreds of private sector major component and end-item manufacturing plants, and thousands of second and third tier subcontractor facilities, all designed to produce large volumes of munitions to fight another worldwide conflict. The end of the cold war triggered a comprehensive reassessment and restructuring of the national security strategy. Concurrently, the ammunition requirements of the Armed Forces were precipitously reduced and the production of ammunition declined to the lowest level since before the Vietnam war. This reduced business for the industrial base has decimated what was once a versatile, robust, and energetic industry. Of the 286 major munitions companies which existed in 1978 only 52 are projected to be in business by the end of 1995, an 82 percent reduction. At the same time the Government production base has shrunk by over 40 percent from 32 to 19 facilities. Only 9 of those remaining 19 plants are being actively workloaded with production. In light of these enormous changes, it is appropriate to review how the Department of Defense plans, budgets, conducts, and manages ammunition procurement and production. My amendment directs the Secretary to initiate such a review, aimed at restructuring the entire munitions infrastructure with three objectives in mind: Elimination of management/review layering in the planning, budgeting, and execution of ammunition programs; fixing the accountability for decisions; and reduction or elimination of Government ownership of production equipment and facilities, while preserving a robust and responsive ammunition production industrial base. Summed up, the overall objective of the study is to recommend those changes which will reduce the cost to the U.S. Government of providing munitions to our Armed Forces both in peace and during war while making the industrial base more responsive to our war fighters' needs.

Mr. DOLE. I have to agree with my colleague. I think Members would be interested to know that almost 45 percent of all heavy lift performed by the Air Force is provided by Air Force Reserves crewmembers. Another 25 percent occupy tactical airlift cockpits. There is no question where our Nation turns in time or need for airlift support.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, if my friend from Connecticut would yield. I am aware of the issue the Senator seeks to discuss and would be happy to enter into a colloquy on this matter.

Mr. DOLE. Fifteen minutes equally divided on a Cohen amendment. Is there any objection to that?

Mr. DOLE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DOLE. We cannot get an agreement. Does anybody else have any amendments that we can get agreements on? Why do we not go ahead? Let us go ahead and have the debate on this amendment and go ahead and have a vote on the first Bumpers amendment. Then we will try to determine what we can figure out in the next 30 minutes. Amendment No. 2091 (Purpose: To limit the total amount that may be obligated or expended for procurement of the SSN-21, SSN-22, and SSN-23 Seawolf class submarines)

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I understand we are not going to be able to get an agreement. I will propose the consent agreement. So it may be we will have to have additional votes this evening. But I am going to ask consent, when Senator Thurmond offers an amendment regarding title 31 of the bill, and immediately after reading of the amendment, Senator Exon be recognized to offer a second-degree amendment to the Thurmond amendment, and there be 45 minutes of debate under the control of Senator Thurmond and 90 minutes under the control of Senator Exon. Further, following the expiration or yielding of time, the Senator from Nevada, Senator Reid, be recognized to offer an amendment in the second degree regarding tritium, on which we will have 60 minutes, 40 minutes to Senator Reid, 20 minutes to Senator Thurmond, and that the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the Exon amendment and on or in relation to the Reid amendment followed immediately by a vote on the Thurmond amendment, as amended, if amended.

Mr. DOLE. Now, if I can have the DOE.

Mr. DOLE

Mr. DOLE. How much time remains?

Mr. DOLE. Just what the agreement says, ``on or in relation to.''

Mr. DOLE. Yes, that is what the agreement says.

Mr. DOLE. You will control time on that side and Senator McConnell will on this side.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, in reference to the pending bill, let me encourage my colleagues--I know we have lost a little time here, but we started on the bill at 9 o'clock. We have had two rather, I guess, important votes, but one was a sense of the Senate; one was concerning $35 million. So this is a big, big piece of legislation. We are going to shut her down on Friday night. I hope that we can accept some of these amendments, and others who feel--we are not going to shut down the Senate Friday night; we are going to shut down this bill on Friday night. I hope we can get time agreements on amendments. It seems to me that most have been argued every year for the past 10, 15 years. If we can get time agreements, I think it is the hope of the managers, Senators Thurmond and Nunn, that they can complete action by Friday evening, and then we can go to either Treasury Department appropriations bill or Interior. And then, Saturday, we will start on the welfare reform package. Later next week, we will take up the DOD appropriations bill, along with the legislative appropriations conference report, I guess, and maybe--depending on Bosnia--maybe a veto override. In any event, I urge my colleagues that if we can cooperate with the managers, they are prepared to work late late this evening and late late tomorrow night and late late Friday night and would really appreciate your cooperation. Unanimous-Consent Agreement Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Boxer be recognized to offer an amendment regarding ethics and that no second- degree amendments be in order to the Boxer amendment, and immediately following that, her amendment be temporarily laid aside and Senator McConnell be recognized to offer an amendment regarding ethics, and that no amendments be in order to the McConnell amendment, and that the time on both amendments be limited to a total of 4 hours, to be equally divided between Senators McConnell and Boxer. I further ask unanimous consent that following the conclusion or yielding back of time on both amendments, the Senate proceed to vote on or in relation to the Boxer amendment to be followed immediately by a vote on or in relation to the McConnell amendment.

Mr. DOLE. This would not prejudice the Senator's right to offer the amendment as far as I am concerned immediately after disposition of the other two amendments.

Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on both amendments.

Mr. DOLE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.