John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, all the modifications are somewhere within the Senator's system. The Senator from Michigan is on notice as to what they are. The corollary situation is we have been notified as to a lot of their modifications. So I say most respectfully to my two colleagues on the other side, if we could put in a quorum call we could quickly resolve the status of the modifications on our side, and to the extent the Senator has knowledge of the status of the modifications on his side, reciprocally what we understand----

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on our side we have taken about 40 amendments from our list, I say to my good friend from Michigan, and of the 40, roughly 19 of them are being prepared to be put in a package for the Senator from Virginia to forward to the desk in accordance with the UC. I say almost all of them, except one or two, we have been working on with the Senator's staff, and we have modified the amendments to conform with what we believe will be acceptable on the Senator's side. So as I send my package to the desk, they will be in a modified form. Logistically, I simply need the time in which to do the modification, and I presume the Senator from Michigan would desire to do pretty much the same thing.

Mr. WARNER. Would the Senator from Oklahoma need 10 minutes to finish his remarks in the intervening period?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I looked at the cost to the American taxpayers for TRICARE for Life, and that is $3.9 billion a year. The concurrent receipts were $22 billion in the 2004 cycle. Through this administration, in veterans funding, there has been a 34-percent increase in funding for health care since 2001. Overall spending for health care has doubled since 1993. So I am not going to take second place to anyone with regard to the achievements we have had in this body by way of trying to care for our veterans. I feel very strongly about that. My military career is very modest: service in World War II and service in Korea in the Marines. I have served with the courageous ones, the ones who lost life and limb. I am not going to take second place to anybody in my trying to work hard to support proper recognition for them and what they have achieved. I am just one of the lucky ones who had the opportunity to serve alongside these veterans and work with their families. For 5 years as Secretary of the Navy, I worked with families in that stressful period of time in Vietnam. I feel so strongly to be a supporter of the veterans' causes, not for political reasons. Some vote for me; some don't. That is all right. The important thing is that this Nation takes them to heart, particularly at this time when, at this very moment, who knows which veteran, which service Active-Duty man in Iraq or Afghanistan, where all of us have visited those battlefields, might have his or her life taken, life or limb. I feel ever so strongly about it. Day or night they are in my mind. I see others desiring to speak so I shall yield the floor.

Mr. WARNER. Well, I believe it is involved.

Mr. WARNER. Well, I don't know, Senator. I am just trying to say that the Senate is looking at this in terms of its fiscal impact. This is somewhere between $200 and $300 billion.

Mr. WARNER. Would my colleague address what is a major concern with this Senator. I say this with total humility. I am a veteran and possibly could benefit someday by what this package contains. I don't know.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I say to my good friend--and we have been good friends for many years--you made reference to President Roosevelt and the GI bill. With my very humble and modest naval service in the last year of World War II, I was a beneficiary of that. But I would say to my good friend, I am proud of what our Senate has done over the past several years to assist veterans. This is another matter that is now pending and has yet to be resolved. I see the distinguished Senator from Nevada, who has been in the forefront with colleagues on my side on the issue of concurrent receipts. Prior to that, I worked with my good friend from Michigan on TRICARE for Life. I could enunciate others. We are about to have a vote here sometime, perhaps tonight or tomorrow. The Senator from Louisiana and the Senator from Nevada and the Senator from Maine are trying to close that gap when a retiree's widow, in most instances, reaches the eligibility for Social Security. Oftentimes there is a very significant dropoff. So we have done a lot in this body. I know well of my old friend's career in the Navy. I was Secretary of the Navy, as you well know, and Under Secretary at the time the decorations you earned through your valor and your courage came before the Navy Department for approval. While I do not have specific recollections--I had to deal with many during those difficult days of a very stressful and tough period in American history; and how well both of us remember that--as far as I know, I participated in some way and look with a sense of pride on approving those decorations. Whether I was Under Secretary or Secretary, it was right in that period of time. We chatted about that in years past. But as to the events of this day, I would say this is my 26th year in the Senate, working with Senator Levin, and I would ask the Senator to step back. If you had the totality of the picture, the majority leader was hopeful, and we have not lost that hope, of continuing through the night and tomorrow to get our final vote on this bill. Much remains to be seen at the hour of 6:20, when we will have the opportunity to look at the amendments our colleagues still feel require their attention. But in that context, it was at the hour of 6:20 when we would have that body of information to give us some clear indication as to what time agreements we could make with the Daschle amendment, time agreements with a number that are pending at the desk. I certainly, speaking for myself--we are not trying to preclude our colleague from his rightful duty to participate today in the affairs of the Senate in any way, but we have to move ahead with not only this bill but the appropriations bill, which is soon to follow. My understanding is, it was to be brought up immediately, assuming this bill were voted on finally tomorrow. But then there was another impediment, as I understand, regarding debt limit and some other things--which I admit I am unfamiliar with-- which then indicated to the majority leader, for whom I have great respect, Senator Frist, who wants to operate in a sense of fairness: Was he not able, as majority leader, to guide the package of legislation, both authorization and appropriations, which he felt necessary? So I am not suggesting the Daschle amendment could not perhaps at a later time tonight be brought up and voted on. I say to the Senator, I recognize the tough schedule you have, but I would not want to say that I feel on this side there is any conspiracy in this area, certainly from my perspective.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, there is a UC in effect which indicates there will be no more amendments that will be taken up at the desk. The Senator can speak to any amendment that is pending or another matter, but as far as transactions with the Presiding Officer at this time, they are not in order.

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

Mr. WARNER. We will take each one and examine it on its own individual basis.

Mr. WARNER. That is understood. I ask unanimous consent that between now and the hour of 6:20, the Senate proceed to allow Senators to speak for up to, say, 15 minutes with regard to pending amendments or amendments that they may intend to offer.

Mr. WARNER. I understand there is a general agreement that we will at this point in time not be sending any additional amendments to the desk, but Senators will debate those that are pending and debate those that may be offered at some point during the course of the day. Am I not correct on that?

Mr. WARNER. I understand clearly the Senator has the same rights as all Senators as it relates to this amendment, but at this point in time our side is trying to deliberate the posture we are in and I am going to have to remain on the floor. Others will come and send for me when I am ready to make my contribution, but at this time I have no other colleagues on the floor so I am just going to remain. I suggest we just go ahead and debate those matters at the desk.

Mr. WARNER. I do not wish to use any of those words. All I recall very clearly when I quickly came on the floor, the Senator had the floor, Senator Bond had yielded the floor to the Senator from Nevada--I thought he was managing--and the Senator from Nevada said he wanted to send up amendments on behalf of Senators Akaka and Leahy. I said, fine, that is within the rules, and that the Senator did but he did not indicate that there would be a third amendment in the nature of--

Mr. WARNER. At this point in time I think we better go back to the original posture of the agreement we reached that we would at this point in time this afternoon just continue debate on matters pending at the desk.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, before this colloquy started--I think we have pretty much completed it, and we have different perspectives--we encouraged those Senators to come up and debate those amendments which are at the desk so we could have debate on them, but no further amendments in the first and second degree would be sent to the desk. I think that is a gentleman's understanding.

Mr. WARNER. It was a Leahy amendment.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I must respectfully say to my good friend, the Democratic leader, that I have to take a different view with regard to the situation on Senator Kerry. I listened to, I thought, most of the conversations, and I do not feel that is the situation. I have tried, and I propose trust in our colleagues on the other side. I say I was negligent in allowing the first-degree amendment to come up and be second degreed. I felt it was another first-degree amendment being offered. It was not announced as a second-degree amendment. I tried to interject, but the parliamentary situation did not allow me to get a quorum call in to ascertain the situation. What is past is past. But I do not want it to stand that on this side of the aisle I see a lot of attempt to block, whether it is Kerry or anybody else, from making votes here.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I might, on the resumption of the Senate consideration of this bill, that will be following the taking of the annual picture. At this time, the understanding is Senator Daschle will be recognized for the purpose of bringing up his pending amendment. I inform the Senate of that situation.

Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we return to regular order.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask that the vote that is about to be taken be deferred in recognition of a need by the distinguished Democratic whip. Amendment No. 3409

Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I certainly want to accommodate the leadership. But I spoke earlier this morning outlining what I understood was going to be the sequence of events in the morning. We certainly want to accommodate the distinguished Democratic leader, but one of our Members, for very special reasons, has to be absent this afternoon. He is a member of the commission on WMD, and he wished to rebut Senator Dayton's amendment, which would be a very short period of time this morning.