Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I believe the main difference was the amendment of the Senator from Virginia said ``may'' and the amendment of the Senator from Illinois said ``shall'' in terms of the $19 million. And you have used the word ``shall'' from the amendment of the Senator from Illinois, have you not?

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, was my request to be added as a cosponsor to the amendment granted?

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

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, again, if the Senator will yield, we are willing to take this amendment to conference and accept it on a voice vote. Is the Senator willing to accept a voice vote?

Mr. STEVENS. It says performed by the Department on payments made for travel.

Mr. STEVENS. Yes.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we are prepared to accept the amendment. If the Senator wants the yeas and nays, he is entitled to them.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 4827 in its modified form--I believe it has been modified----

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask for a vote on this amendment. Are the yeas and nays ordered?

Mr. STEVENS. I ask that that order be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

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

Mr. STEVENS. Have the yeas and nays been ordered?

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I have another managers' package that has been prepared and has the approval of Senator Inouye and myself. Let me state it for the Senate. It contains amendment No. 4777, for Senator Smith, regarding landing systems; amendment No. 4821, for Senator Landrieu, regarding first-aid kits; amendment No. 4789, for Senator Stabenow, regarding Stryker combat vehicles; amendment No. 4837, for Senator Bennett, regarding all-terrain vehicles; amendment No. 4823, for Senator Durbin, regarding the training of military nurse educators; and amendment No. 4838, for Senator McCain, regarding grants. These have been cleared by both managers. I send this managers' package to the desk and ask unanimous consent that it be considered immediately, the amendments be adopted immediately, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I wish to speak on the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, we have a long day ahead of us. I again want to state that the Parliamentarian has submitted an opinion regarding the application of rule XVI to quite a few amendments. In order to not be discriminatory, it is my intention to raise rule XVI in any instance in which the Parliamentarian says it would apply, and I think Senators ought to be on notice to that effect. There is a whole series of amendments that are being presented today. I believe we will have a considerable number of votes today. I wish to point out to the Senate that Senator Inouye and I have now reprogrammed over $4 billion from various projects and equipment accounts that we have already approved for the Department of Defense for this fiscal year. Those requests were made to obtain more money to cover the costs of the military pay and allowances and the costs associated with rotation of our military force in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. That means within the next few weeks there is going to be a shutdown on many contracts throughout the United States. I say to the occupant of the chair, the distinguished Senator from the same State I represent, we had that happen at Fort Greely when the supplemental was not approved in time, with considerable disruption to the working people who were working on projects at Fort Greely. Some of them have been resumed, but the tempo that was in place could not be picked up because of the problem of financing the Department of Defense during this period. So I want Members to be on notice that if this bill is not completed and signed by the President and delivered to the Secretary of Defense before September 30, there will be even more of these notices of delay, which lead to unemployment, lead to considerable increase in costs. There is no reason this bill should be delayed. This bill has to be sent to the President before the end of the fiscal year and timed, as a matter of fact, so the Secretary of Defense has the authority to release the money immediately on the first of October. I urge the Senate to consider the welfare of these men and women who represent us now in 120 countries throughout the world. We have men and women in uniform who depend upon this. As delays occur--we know what has just happened to the Stryker Brigade from our State. They were ready to come back. Two days from the time they were scheduled to come back, they were delayed. Their personal equipment had been sent home. Their families had airline tickets to go meet their loved ones as they came into the depot. They planned vacations and some time off with their families. Reservations were made. The Department has said they are going to try to compensate those people to the extent possible, but all of those are delays which were caused by lack of funding. Now, I think the Senate cannot be in the position of not passing this bill before we go home. If we do so, I can tell Members of the Senate, they are going to get the kind of complaints Senator Murkowski and I have gotten from the families of the Stryker Brigade. And they are legitimate complaints. The problem is, there is nothing we can do about it. I do think it is incumbent upon us to concentrate on this bill today. And again, I serve notice that rule XVI will be applied to any amendment the Parliamentarian says violates that rule. I thank the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, the Senator's amendment is very difficult to vote against, except that it applies to all members of the Department of Defense, civilian and military. About 1 percent of the people in the Department of Defense, civilian and military, go to a conference each year. I personally know that when we travel abroad, we ask for members of the Department of Defense from Germany and from Italy to come meet with us in France. We have conferences with them concerning NATO. We did the same thing recently in terms of the Middle East. We had people come from three different countries to meet with us when we were in Kuwait. That involved probably 14 people traveling in each instance to come see us. It is essential that we have conferences and not have to depend upon video conferences to deal with issues. That applies throughout the Department of Defense. The Senator is correct. We offered to take it to conference, and in conference we might be able to find a reasonable figure that would be a limitation. Seventy million is not a reasonable limitation. There is no reason for us to try to be unreasonable with the Department of Defense. We are the last superpower in the world. People depend upon us, and we go visit the places, 120 different countries, where we have military people in uniform. It costs money. The cost of traveling is going up all the time. I did offer to take the amendment to conference and try to work out with the House a reasonable limitation. The Senator is unwilling do that. Therefore, I move to table the Senator's amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

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

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

Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment may be temporarily set aside so the Senator may offer another amendment. We are trying to determine the availability of membership to be present for a vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, this amendment violates rule XVI in terms of the second portion of the amendment, part (b)(2), page 2. If it applied just to the reports delivered to the Appropriations Committee, it would not, in my opinion. I have already said I am going to raise rule XVI on any amendment that is determined by the Parliamentarian to apply to a particular amendment. In regard to the basic concept, we have no problem with having all of the items that are submitted to the Appropriations Committee put on the Web. Almost all of them are anyway. But there are some reports that are submitted to Congress pursuant to section 1105, as I understand it, which are documents that go to other committees and are for other purposes. I don't know what their policies are with regard to disclosure. All of the items that come to us are on the Web, and we welcome them being on the Web. We don't have any problem with every report required by the provisions of this act, submitted pursuant to this act, or, as a matter of fact, in terms of existing law, but I do think we should not have a violation of rule XVI. Therefore, I ask the Senator if he is willing to limit paragraph (2) to any report required by the Department of Defense to be submitted to the Appropriations Committee in support of the budget of the President which does not violate rule XVI? The Senator said that is what it is about, but it goes further. It applies to any report going to any committee or to the Congress itself with regard to this budget. There are other justifications submitted to other committees. What their policies are, I don't know.

Mr. STEVENS

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