John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. The Senator is correct. The Senator from Michigan spoke to me before he departed the floor saying that was his desire and he will be speaking. We can now stand in recess until the hour of 2:15 p.m.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we accept the expression of the will of the Senate on this matter. I had the difficult position to oppose it, which I did. As we look toward the benefits for the Guard and Reserve, they are deserved, richly, in most instances, but there is a balance that is somewhere not clearly definable between what we do for the regulars and what we do for the Guard and Reserve. If it gets out of balance, we could precipitate a bit of civil strife between these two magnificent categories of men and women who proudly serve in the uniform for our country and carry out their duties side by side on the battlefield and here at home. We will move on. It is my intention to carefully consider this amendment, which was strongly adopted by the Senate, in the context of the overall bill and such other amendments in the House and the Senate as may contribute to the benefit of the men and women of the Armed Forces. I yield the floor.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we understood a number of Senators were going to introduce it.

Mr. WARNER. I think the advantages, if I may say with respect to my two highly esteemed colleagues, are that the second-degree amendment can be understood by anyone who can interpret the English language. When I look at your amendment--I have been over here working it and reworking it--it leaves a little bit of a challenge.

Mr. WARNER. My esteemed colleague is absolutely correct.

Mr. WARNER. Which amendment are you discussing? The Reed amendment?

Mr. WARNER. First, it has to be removed and nothing has been removed yet. The law of the land remains the same tonight as it has been since 1994. We are endeavoring to see what should be done about it. The bill reported out by our committee on a fairly significant vote in favor of repeal would have the effect of repealing it in its entirety.

Mr. WARNER. My amendment says, yes, carry forward with the intent of the majority vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee but put in the steps of Congress having to authorize and approve funds for each step subsequent to research.

Mr. WARNER. Which Senator's?

Mr. WARNER. I wish we were arguing that case. Both of us were trial lawyers. If you had made that mistake on the floor of a trial courtroom, I would have you nailed right now.

Mr. WARNER. You are working your way around trying to figure out exactly what it is you and the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island want to do.

Mr. WARNER. In the committee?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I apologize. I did not intend to plagiarize your good work. Suffering from a middle-age crisis, I forgot that you might have done that.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I say to the Senator, since we discussed what he intends to do, I yield to him such time as he may require.

Mr. WARNER. I thank the Presiding Officer. I say to colleagues on my side of the aisle, I hope they will approach me as soon as possible to indicate such time as they might wish to take of the hour under the control of the Senator from Virginia. The Senator from Colorado wishes to address the Senate. I yield the floor for that purpose.

Mr. WARNER. That is acceptable. Let me finish the request. I ask unanimous consent that following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the amendment, with no amendment in order to the language proposed to be stricken prior to the vote.

Mr. WARNER. With that addition, I say to my colleague, we would add more time for Senator Boxer?

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, we have had excellent cooperation on both sides of the aisle in this very important debate. I would like to propound a unanimous consent request on which my distinguished colleague from Michigan, the leader, Senator Reid, and I have worked. This is on the pending Feinstein-Kennedy amendment. I ask unanimous consent that prior to a vote in relation to the pending Feinstein-Kennedy amendment No. 715, the following Members be recognized to address the Senate: Senator Reed, 20 minutes; Senator Biden, 20 minutes; Senator Kennedy, 5 minutes; Senator Feinstein, 15 minutes; Senator Levin, 25 minutes; and under the control of the Senator from Virginia will be 60 minutes, which I will allocate.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank my colleague for what I interpret as kind words. We remain to have a difference of opinion as to the advisability of not repealing this current prohibition in its entirety. I have no further comments with respect to the pending amendments.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am perfectly willing. That is a very good suggestion.

Mr. WARNER. The Senator is correct. The modification was reviewed on this side, and we are prepared to accept the amendment.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, let us place before the Chair a parliamentary inquiry as to whether or not there has been any change in the definition of the word ``relevancy'' as used by the Parliamentarian, say, in the last decade.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I would like to ask the following question: We have a process in our committee that is not unlike what other committees do. We have our subcommittee structure where these issues are brought up and worked through the subcommittee. Then they are fully worked in the full committee in a series of two markups. I say to my distinguished colleague from Rhode Island, one for whom I have tremendous admiration, you have been a watchdog on this subject for some period of time. I have listened carefully to the debate today. Where I am perplexed is that in our bill, on pages 26 and 27--you need not go to that; I will just read it to you--``Oversight and procurement of ballistic missile defense,'' we enumerate a series of matters that we have in the nature of reports. This was carefully worked out by the staff of the majority and staff of the minority. Your concerns were not raised, as I understand it, at the subcommittee level. They were not raised at the full markup level. Here we are now confronting the entire Senate with the issue of whether we should go into more reporting requirements, above and beyond what is in the bill. I say to my distinguished colleague, if you go back--for instance, last year you had similarly at the last minute, the last amendment on the bill, a series of further reporting requirements. We ended up working that out, accepting parts of it, and went ahead with the bill. But according to my calculation, the Armed Services Committee receives more than 2,000 pages of reporting each year now from the Missile Defense Agency. I repeat, 2,000 pages. We are putting more and more requirements on this Agency, requiring more and more staff on subjects which, for reasons perhaps you will give now, you did not raise in the subcommittee and you didn't raise in the full committee. The purpose of our staffs is to try to work out and reconcile, in the course of the preparation of the bill before it is finally marked up and brought to the Senate, such matters as this. After all, reporting requirements are fairly arcane and as a general rule we try to accede to the requests of Members who feel strongly about it. Unfortunately, they pile up and become quite onerous, but nevertheless, the practice of the Senate is to accord courtesy to fellow Members. But now we are up to 2,000 pages from one agency of the Department of Defense. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know how many people on the committee, members and staff, go through all these 2,000 pages at the moment. Could the Senator, then, advise me as to the procedure in the subcommittee, procedure in the full committee, and why the staff didn't have these matters under their cognizance at the time they were trying to reconcile the differences and prepare the bill language on reporting requirements?

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

Mr. WARNER. I thank both of my colleagues. We have had a good colloquy. I yield the floor.