Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, after having consultation with the interested Senators, I make the following unanimous consent request: I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Colorado, Mr. Allard, have 15 minutes; the Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan, have 2 minutes; Senator Leahy have 5 minutes; the distinguished minority leader have 10 minutes; Senator Biden have 10 minutes; and there be 25 minutes under my control to be allocated to interested Senators on this side, if any, and that there be a vote in relation to the Leahy amendment, with no amendments being in order prior to the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, it would be my purpose to try to see if we could have a specific time on this vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Six o'clock? Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this vote that has just been ordered occur at 6 p.m.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, in just a minute we will start the vote on the Leahy amendment, but I want the Senate to be on notice following this amendment there will be a vote on a Federal judge. That will be announced during the period right after this vote. Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar

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

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. There is one amendment that might still require a vote tonight. We think it will be worked out. So many people want to start this vote, I suggest we start it. If that amendment is worked out, there will be more votes tonight, but we should know before the rollcall is over. So I suggest we start the rollcall now.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I yield our time.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am indeed sorry that the Senator did not discuss it with us further before he offered this amendment. There is $26 billion in the 2004 bill the President signed the night before last for the Army. They could reprogram any money they need from the $26 billion. We asked them in and we identified the needs in the Army. We took $952 million from other services and moved it to the Army. And we covered specific items that they identified in terms of their priorities. What Senator Dodd's amendment does, though, is it adds money to accounts we have already plused up, and it takes it from money to bring the troops home. He has attacked the exact wrong part of the bill. I wish I had more than 5 minutes, but I do not want to inconvenience my colleagues and keep them here too long tonight. People are missing planes because of this vote. And it is a vote that is duplicitous. It really is designed to reduce the $20.3 billion in the other part of the account. We did get money for these people. We got money for every item that is on that list, and in the regular bill they have $26 billion. In addition to that, we added $952 million. Now, I have been overseas. I said the other day, I remember going overseas, and on the way I bought boots. I did not like my boots. I bought shirts. I did not like my shirts. I bought gloves I would rather wear. Kids are kids, and they are going to buy what they want. This idea that they have to buy armor, armor is available on the basis of how rapidly it is produced. And we have put up money in here, more than enough to buy everything to be produced in this time that he mentioned between now and--what?--about 5 months away. That is special money on top of the $26 billion that they could use if they want. It is in the O&M account. These are O&M items they are talking about. Now, I do not believe we should do this at this late hour, try to take money out of one account and justify it by virtue of this litany of items that we reviewed. We did review it. They brought us this list. The Senator has gone over this list of items that the Army would like to have in addition to what the Department of Defense gave them. We went over it and we agreed. We said: $952 million of this you should have had in the go-around in the Department of Defense. And we took it from the Air Force and from the Navy and from the Marines and put it here. What we do miss is we do have $300 million for body armor in the rapid fielding initiative, and explosive and ordnance cleanup, $174 million for damaged equipment. We have $136 million for radios. Now, the Senator mentions this $1 million for families. That is money that may be claimed--may be claimed. We paid $30 million for the people who came in and identified the two sons of Saddam Hussein. It may not be spent at all. It will only be spent if these people come in and disclose people we want to pick up that are worth the cost. What is the cost? Moving them out of the country forever. That is taking people and buying them a new life somewhere else because they have exposed themselves to death because they disclosed the location of some of these people. I am appalled the Army would ask for this addition. We made an agreement with them. We took money from the other three services. And someone in the Army is going to answer to me. If it is really true someone in the Army went to the Senator from Connecticut and demanded more money than we gave them, after we gave them $26 billion in the regular bill, gave them another $952 million, almost a billion we took from other services, to come in and make this demand at this time, it is absolutely nonsense. Anyone who comes back, I hope they understand they have been brought back to answer a political amendment. I am going to move to table it when the time comes. The Senator from Connecticut is my friend, but I have to tell you, to bring back people who have already gone home, some of them who missed planes in order to vote on this amendment at this time, is an absolute absurdity. How much time do I have remaining?

Mr. STEVENS. I will reserve it.

Mr. STEVENS. The yeas and nays are not ordered until I speak.

Mr. STEVENS. I have not yielded back my time.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, that is good for me. If you want to have a quorum, go right ahead. Go right ahead.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I want to point out the Army has all of this money in this supplemental without any directions in the bill. The line items the Senator mentions are specified in our report. They have entire discretion to use any money in this bill for the moneys he has asked for. But he wants to take it from the other money. This is a duplicitous amendment to take money from the second part of the bill and put it in the first.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to table the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to table.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am authorized by the majority leader to state that there will no more votes tonight. We have a series of amendments that we have agreed to accept by Senators Collins, Reed, Graham of South Carolina, Voinovich, and Murray. Some of these amendments are going to be proposed. I have an amendment I will introduce. Those are the amendments only that will be considered now. There will be no votes on those. I yield the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. We agreed to Jack Reed next.

Mr. STEVENS. We have no objection.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, this is an amendment to delete a provision in the bill that required a report from the Department of the Interior. At the request of Senator McCain, I am removing that, and I ask unanimous consent to remove that from the bill before it goes to conference. I ask for its consideration.