John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I want to commend the Senator for the leadership he has taken in this area. I had the opportunity to work with the Senator. As a matter of fact, one of the amendments we jointly worked on eventually became law in the appropriations cycle that required Ambassador Crocker to come before the Senate, General Petraeus to come before the Senate, and the President to make a report to the Nation. We also created the Jones Commission. All of these matters had the Senator's support all along, and I wish to say that the Senator has been absolutely tireless in his efforts to try to help the Senate do the necessary oversight on this situation. While we have not, in this current legislation, specific things--the Senator from Michigan brought up an amendment which failed. It should not be looked at as a failure. The Senate is doing oversight. The Senate will continue every single day to give oversight on this situation. But we also have to be respectful to the Constitution, which delegates very carefully the responsibilities of the legislative branch, i.e. the Senate and the House of Representatives, and that of the President in his role as Commander in Chief, where specifically it is entrusted to the President to decide the strategy and the mission, and the Senate and the House are primarily responsible for the authorization and appropriation of funds. But it does not relieve in any way the obligation of this body to watch what is taking place in Iraq, to give our best thought and counsel to the executive branch--namely, the President--to try to bring about an achievement of the basic goals of a free and sovereign and stable Iraq, which hopefully someday can join the other nations of the world, particularly as it relates to the ongoing war with those who are termed ``terrorists,'' for lack of a better term, who are challenging our respective countries, whether it is the United States or other nations in the world. So I just wanted to thank the Senator for his leadership. Senator Salazar has done a marvelous job.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I assure my colleague that I fully anticipate we will have further debates on the very issues that have been of concern to my colleague from Colorado during the Defense appropriations bill, which we will be following up with at the conclusion of work on this bill. But I point out that it has not all been lost. I will give the Senator specific examples. A number of us have indicated a desire to have some of our troops brought home as early as possible, and the President initiated, after testimony by General Petraeus, the steps to start bringing our troops home, some elements of them, before Christmas. He laid out a program for reduction in forces with an objective to be at what we call a presurge force level by late next spring or very early next summer. So the voices in this Chamber are being heard. I know personally that the President is quite anxious, more so than most, to bring our forces home, but only after achievement of the goals for which heavy sacrifices have been made. We are now crossing 3,800 who have been lost and many others wounded. We must be certain that great sacrifice was not in vain. I thank the Chair, and I thank my colleague.

Mr. WARNER. I remember being in the Cabinet room when that dialog took place.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, may we have order? Amendment No. 2999, as Further Modified

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I compliment my colleagues from Missouri and Virginia, Senators McCaskill and Webb. The amendment was carefully reviewed by myself and others on this side. We made several recommendations. Each of those recommendations were accepted. We indicate for the record that the amendment is accepted on this side. I ask that we have a voice vote.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that we may have printed in the Record at this point such other statements relative to the changes that we deem appropriate to support this amendment, including a document dated September 25, 2007, by the Deputy Secretary of Defense subject: ``Management of DOD Contractors and Contract Personnel Accompanying U.S. Armed Forces in Contingency Operations Outside the United States.'' This is a step by the Deputy Secretary to correct some of the problems that this commission will be addressing. It underlies the necessity for the commission that these two Senators and others have advocated.

Mr. WARNER. I think we are prepared to vote.

Mr. WARNER. 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. Amendment No. 2196

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment Nos. 2902, 3000, 3041, 3073, 2127, as Modified; 3088, 2983, 3076, 2991, 2989, 3081, 3078, 3104, 2133, 3077, 2265, as Modified; 3087, 2954, 2049, 2101, 2261, 2074, 2000, 2161, 2925, 2912, 2066, 2984, as Modified; 3075, as Modified; 3089, as Modified; 3090, 2993, as Modified; 2872, as Modified; 2214, as Modified; 2942, as Modified, to amendment No. 2011

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on this amendment.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we are now on the bill in a postcloture status. The distinguished chairman, Senator Levin, is here. I am here. We are prepared to deal with whatever amendments come forward this evening and, again, we will be here tomorrow.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, there is no objection on this side. We will resume the bill tomorrow morning, I presume, around 10 o'clock.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we are now in the postcloture status.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3017

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

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I could ask my distinguished chairman and longtime colleague a question, I read this amendment, and it seems to me it has laudatory goals. But it is--we are outsourcing the work of the Congress, and, most specifically, outsourcing the work of our Armed Services Committee. That is the thing that concerns me. We have two very distinguished sponsors, our colleague from Virginia and our other colleague on our committee. But I find it difficult to rationalize how this commission would function at the same time in a manner that literally outsources the responsibilities of our committee.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if you want to take those provisions out and make it a freestanding amendment, I would be supportive of modifying it.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I know our chairman has another engagement. We will return to this debate. This thing really poses, in my judgment, new ground for the committee, to outsource this much responsibility of oversight. At this point, I will yield the floor. I see our colleague seeking recognition.

Mr. WARNER. I thank my distinguished colleague from Missouri, the State in which my mother was born.

Mr. WARNER. No objection on this side.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I acknowledge that, yes, I did conceive that idea, and successfully, with the help of Senator Byrd and others, got that legislation through. But that was for a tightly defined purpose within a prescribed short period of time. This one, I believe, is of 2 years duration. Mr. President, I say to my distinguished chairman, I have listened to him recount some of the commissions that our committee has sanctioned. But I am now prepared on this floor to tell my chairman, if you believe we need extra help, I will lead the effort with you to get more money from our committee to take over some of the responsibilities that the Senator is about to recommend to the Senate be outsourced to a commission.

Mr. WARNER. I remember that Packard Commission very well, but that was a tightly knit commission for a specific purpose. I used to be at the Pentagon and worked under David Packard as Secretary of the Navy. We were fortunate to get him to do that. This seems to be an omnibus situation to me. I am concerned about having the inspector generals, which, again, is a creation by our committee, against some of the administration's wishes. They weren't overly keen on putting inspector generals in there. Our colleague from New Jersey has a bill to have an IG now for Iraq. I want to support that. But these inspector generals have to report to this Commission, I understand. I would not want to be a party to amending the law there. They were created by the Congress, and they should report to the Congress, not to a commission.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Missouri. I must say, having been on this Armed Services Committee now 29 years with my good friend, Senator Levin, we ``old bulls,'' as we are referred to, are very much impressed with our new member, her vigor, her foresight, her determination to get things done. She has stirred us up in a very constructive way, I might say. As to this measure, this will require a little more study on this side. But I am concerned with the fundamental proposition that we are abdicating the duties of the committee, but we are not quite there yet in this debate to try to reach some final determinations. An interesting observation: 20,000 individuals, and probably that is correct. They are scattered not just in Washington but all across America in military departments. The Department of the Army has its procurement center outside the Nation's Capital. In a sense, as the chairman said and I think the Senator from Missouri has said, the enormity of the problem out there--is the Senator suggesting that the enormity of that problem is a consequence of this 20,000 or so not performing their duties as prescribed?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for her analysis. As I read this, they can look backward, forward, sidewise, any way they wish and have one of the strongest powers Congress can confer on any commission--subpoena power--compelling persons against their wishes to come before that committee, take an oath, and provide testimony. That is something that Congress should consider very carefully before it confers that on--for the moment we know not who will be on this commission. As I say, we will require further deliberation. But I do point out that the Senator talked about the uniform side. Much of the military procurement system is performed by very able career civilians. From time to time, military officers are detailed as a part of their career and otherwise to work with those civilians. But I feel the Senator is putting on report an awful lot of people with a broad brush. I want to think about that. Having had the privilege of serving with those people in the Department of Defense--perhaps not the ones who are there now but many. I think at the time I was Secretary of the Navy, I had 700,000 to 800,000 civilians in the Department of the Navy. They are very conscientious people. I acknowledge there have been a lot of unfortunate things in the rush to do what we felt was necessary with respect to Iraq and, to a lesser degree but nevertheless to a degree, Afghanistan. Haste makes waste is the old adage. For the moment, I have thoroughly been informed by the views of the Senator, and I hope to continue to have a dialog with the Senator as this matter is now before the full Senate. I yield the floor.

Mr. WARNER. That was a group of how many amendments?