John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I wish to compliment our colleague. This amendment was worked on on both sides. I believe that is included in the Record.

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 I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. WARNER. I ask to be a cosponsor.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry regarding the germaneness of the amendment by the Senator from North Carolina.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I will momentarily make a parliamentary inquiry as to germaneness. I say to my friend, who has been by my side in the Senate the 23 years I have been here, I was a cosponsor from day one. Should the Senator elect to pursue this as a freestanding or in other measures legislatively, I would like to be a cosponsor. At the appropriate time--I see another colleague who wishes to address the issue--I will make the inquiry with regard to germaneness. The distinguished chairman and myself have made clear, in order to manage this bill, I will have to move for those amendments on my side, and he is going to move accordingly on germaneness for amendments on his side.

Mr. WARNER. I asked the Chair as to the parliamentary status of this amendment. The Chair has responded. I was awaiting the Chair's ruling. I raised a point of order, but I mean, the Chair then rules that the amendment falls, am I not correct?

Mr. WARNER. I have done that.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we have the matter of the Allard amendment. That is the only amendment on this side I have knowledge of, I so advise the chairman. I am advised that Senator Allard is on his way. I wonder if the chairman might comment on his knowledge. Senator Allard indicated to me he believed his amendment had reached a resolution and that it could be cleared on both sides.

Mr. WARNER. I am not sure I understood it as a unanimous consent. It was an inquiry to the managers. I certainly have indicated my support for it, and Senator Levin and I are of the opinion it is a matter that has to be addressed by the leadership as to the schedule.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we are about to vote in 2 or 3 minutes; am I not correct?

Mr. WARNER. I agree

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, might I also add the Chairman and I had to make a decision to move on the question of germaneness. I do it on my side; the chairman was prepared to do it on his side. There was clearly a question of germaneness. We have a number of Senators--another one just appeared. We had a list of over 100 amendments. We have been waiting. We stayed here until late last night and tried to consider them. I regret if there was a miscommunication. As captain of the ship, I take responsibility. But in good conscience, I have claimed many times and stated at lunch today among my colleagues that we were moving to final passage. As far as I knew, no amendments were going to be brought up. I regret profusely, I say to my friend, and I yield the floor if he wants to make a few comments. Several Senators addressed the Chair.

Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. WARNER. The Record should reflect the important contribution by that group of Senators. Senator Judd Gregg was in the leadership at that time. You were present. Senator Stevens, Senator Inouye, Senator Levin attended a lot of these. We had 2 full days of hearings.

Mr. WARNER. I wanted to discuss that. There was a clear and historic bipartisanship in the work by the committee. I pose it as a question now: Supposing in a future budget coming before the Congress from President Bush's team, and Mr. Ridge would have a voice, of course, and say, arbitrarily, he needed another 10 teams, and that funding is in the Department of Defense budget, and our committee decided we ought to have 20 teams. However, the new committee that you envision would, I presume, get the budget request, as would the Armed Services Committee, and would either have to agree with our committee or disagree, and if there is a disagreement, how do you resolve it?

Mr. WARNER. In fairness, Senator Lott has hosted several meetings-- you and I have been present--so he could look at all options on it.

Mr. WARNER. I want to follow this carefully.

Mr. WARNER. That was an important piece of work we did. Again, if no standing committee gives up any jurisdiction, I am still having difficulty understanding exactly how this new committee will function. I ask the question in a supportive manner and in no way to infer that I am not supporting the ultimate objective, especially of the leadership itself, to establish such a format. If we don't have some yielding of jurisdiction, I am not sure how that committee functions.

Mr. WARNER. If I might continue, one area of work of the Senator, as the former chairman, and I presume now in this bill the current chairman, is to prioritize those funds that go to the National Guard support teams. We started out 3 years ago with I think 4, 5, 6. Our committee each year increased the number of teams, increased the funding for the teams. Their teams would be the first responders; or maybe the local police, fire, and other authorities would be the first responders. There was a problem because we only had so many teams for the 50 States. How many teams are we up to now?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to compliment my distinguished colleague, a member of the Armed Services Committee. Let the Record reflect he was the chairman of the Emerging Threat Subcommittee, which as a new chairman I created many years ago. Many of us on the committee, preeminent and foremost our distinguished colleague, Senator Roberts, in his tireless efforts, brought to the attention first of the committee, then the Senate as a whole, the serious looming threats across the board. Often he was alone in those efforts, but he had me by his side. I say the two of us, I suppose, in some respects at times had to forge ahead. I do not say that in a partisan way because both sides of the aisle, in terms of our committee, at times had to push hard to get measures through and to eventually get what money we could from the Appropriations Committee to support the initiatives of the former chairman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats. We are fortunate the Senator remains as the ranking member under the chairmanship of the distinguished Senator from Louisiana. I have not had an opportunity to examine the format of the Senator for this important initiative that must be taken at some point by the leadership of the Senate and hopefully the endorsement of the full Senate. From what I have heard of the Senator's remarks, I think it is a landmark place from which to begin to examine this question. If I might inquire, perhaps in the Senator's extended remarks he covers the budgetary authority. That, as the Senator knows, is very important. For example, in our bill now pending before the Senate for the Armed Forces for fiscal year 2000, we have a number of billions of dollars directed towards the President's initiatives, the initiatives of the Congress of the United States, to thwart terrorism. How would that be treated under the proposal the Senator from Kansas has? Would that jurisdiction over those funds--would we have, should we say, coequal authority of, say, the Armed Services Committee and other committees that have jurisdiction over portions of terrorism?

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, would the Senator kindly yield for me to make this observation? It had been the intention of the leadership of the Senate, and the managers, in order to accommodate Senators desiring to attend the briefing, to go into recess subject to the call of the Chair. Is that correct?

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I wonder if we might extend the time of the vote by 2 minutes to allow the Senator from Alaska to address the Senate, and then the vote will take place at 10:02.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I am pleased to say that my colleague, Senator McCain, and I think one or two others in our conference strongly support cloture. I am pleased to say that I think momentarily the Senate will see a very strong vote in favor of cloture and for moving ahead on this bill. I thank my colleague, the Senator from Arizona, and others for their support in this matter. I say to the chairman we will make as much progress as possible today, and we will have to vigilantly enforce the rules with regard to germaneness if we are to achieve our results. But we have stood steadfast on both sides of the aisle on behalf of the men and women of the Armed Forces. I am proud of the Senate on this day.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I first thank the assistant majority leader for his words on this subject. I associate myself with the need to move forward on this bill. I am going to vote for cloture. I am about to leave and go into my party's conference and so indicate and encourage others to do likewise. Madam President, when I looked at the television this morning and saw our President with the leadership reconciling differences, such as the budget, our President moving to make the tough decision, but it is a correct one given the security arrangements in place, to open National Airport, these are bold initiatives. Now the Senate has the opportunity to move forward and complete today a bill for the men and women of the Armed Forces, men and women who, with their families, are now preparing to face an unknown situation but facing it with commitment and courage. I hope this Senate stands tall behind them and moves forward with this legislation. I ask my distinguished chairman to allocate a few minutes of his time to me. I have reserved the equal amount of time for those who may wish to come to the floor in opposition to this cloture motion. I stand strongly in favor of it so America can move forward and we can support the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States and their families. I yield the floor.