John Warner

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. 3949

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on this side.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3950

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on this side.

Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration, and I ask the clerk to read the amendment.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3941 (Purpose: To reallocate $5,000,000 of the authorization of appropriations for Other Procurement, Navy, for the integrated bridge system to items less than $5,000,000 from the Aegis support equipment)

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, this is an administration proposal, and there is concurrence on both sides.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, it has been cleared on our side, also.

Mr. WARNER. I urge its adoption.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, this is a technical amendment to correct the procurement line associated with the integrated bridge system in the other procurement and Navy funding account. My understanding is it is cleared on the other side.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 3943

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Collins of Maine which is a technical amendment to correct the Navy research development funding line associated with the laser welding and cutting program. My understanding is this amendment has been cleared on the other side.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Allard, I ask unanimous consent that the privilege of the floor be granted to Carol Welsch, a national defense fellow in Senator Allard's office, and Lance Landry of Senator Allen's office, during the entire debate of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. The time under our control will be controlled by the distinguished Senator from Kansas.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I thank the distinguished leader. Yes, we are having a very important hearing, but I am certain we could determine a point during the course of that hearing and the time normally allowed for the vote for us to adjourn for, say, 10 minutes, so that all of our members could vote and return to the hearing. I am sure the chairman would agree to that.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I just received a communication from the leadership. May I have another 3 or 4 minutes?

Mr. WARNER. Yes.

Mr. WARNER. I thank the leadership. This goes back to the days when I was privileged to be in the Senate with Senator Stennis, who will always be the person who started me on this course of action; that is the way he worked. That is the way John Tower, Barry Goldwater, Scoop Jackson, and those who preceded us worked when it came to the issues of national defense. They managed those bills with great skill, and less dependence, of course, on cloture. I hope this will be the direction in which we will move.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I do not wish to precede my chairman, but I want to make sure I say this while both leaders are on the floor. The distinguished majority leader talked in terms of relevancy; the minority leader spoke in terms of germaneness. My understanding is that the standard is relevancy to be decided by the chairman and the ranking member in this case, and we will exercise that fairly but very firmly. We are committed. When I approached the chairman with this proposition, I said I will move to table on our side, he will move to table on his side or make points of order, as the case may be. The distinguished Republican whip participated in the conversations, and I judge that what I am saying is consistent with all who are listening at this time.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I thank my good friend for his usual and customary senatorial courtesy. (The remarks of Mr. Warner pertaining to the introduction of S. 2662 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am a cosponsor with the Senator from Maine on this legislation. I can reduce my time to 3 minutes.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I thank our distinguished assistant majority leader. I am assured that the Republican leader worked hand-in-glove with the majority to bring up this bill, providing our committee with this very important period of time prior to the Fourth of July, but we must finish it.

Mr. WARNER. I say to our leader, subject to the pending amendment, we are hopeful to move on to other amendments in due course.

Mr. WARNER. Would the Senator allow me to associate myself as an extension about observations regarding my colleague. We have some philosophical differences, but he does bring to our committee the wealth of experience he gained in the U.S. military. That is so important. I also want to discuss scheduling on the floor.