John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. In our early discussions today, the Senator from Florida worked some constructive changes. The Rules Committee has overall jurisdiction of voting in elections. Senator Dodd, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, collaborated on this issue, and it was badly needed. We suffered, as a nation, when we had the problems in Florida. I am not suggesting guilt anywhere, but there was a lot of confusion with the unexpected situation. There was great controversy over the men and women in the Armed Forces, particularly those beyond our shores serving in posts overseas, as to their ballots, when they were finally received in that State--and indeed we found other States had problems, so it was not exclusively a problem for Florida. This amendment will go a long way toward clarification.

Mr. WARNER. On our side, I know of no further amendments. May I inquire of my colleague, the chairman?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I join in thanking the Republican and Democrat leadership for their assistance in getting us to this point. Senator Lott and Senator Nickles also were on the floor last night until 8 o'clock, as was Senator Reid. We thank them.

Mr. WARNER. I would like at this time again to thank all colleagues for their assistance in getting this very important piece of legislation up and carefully considered over a period of several days. I thank the staffs--on my senior staff, Les Brownlee, who hopefully will be moving on to other assignments here in the near future, and David Lyles, his counterpart, and others. I am most grateful. Senator Levin and I have been on this committee 23 years. I guess this is our 23rd bill. We have had tremendous cooperation from colleagues, staff, and otherwise. This morning it was quite clear there was unanimity on both sides of the aisle to proceed with this bill. I thank my distinguished chairman. It is a pleasure to work with him. We had some hard decisions to make and I think we made them basically together. We eliminated from the bill many provisions which the chairman felt very strongly about regarding the missile defense funding language. But it was done, and done in a spirit to get this bill up and passed in the Senate, so now we go to the House and conference and hopefully we will send up to the President a very fine bill on behalf of the men and women of the Armed Forces.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I commend the chairman, Senator Thomas, and the senior Senator from Texas for reconciling differences on an issue which was of great importance to all parties. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I share that goal. After carefully offering opportunity to my colleagues, I understand, if we resolve the matters with Senator Allard, that may conclude the amendments. It won't seal them off, but we have made a great deal of progress.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, for the record, the amendment is accepted on this side.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I think the Senator is aware that I, in my capacity as ranking on Armed Services, have not objected to what Senator Lott has put out as some format. To the contrary, I have indicated to him my strongest support for whatever evolves, hopefully with his leadership and others'--yourself--out of this effort. I commend the Senator but I am prepared to make whatever adjustments are necessary in order for this very important concept to be formalized and instituted in the Senate. I thank the Senator.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I so modify my UC, and I ask unanimous consent that the statements made in the Chamber today and otherwise in regard to the distinguished former Chairman be printed in today's Record in one place by the close of business today.

Mr. WARNER. In regard to the pending amendment by the Senator from Connecticut, I think it is important to show how these funds are being spent. I referred to the bill that we put in last year in the Senate Armed Services Committee, known as the Floyd D. Spence national defense authorization on page 378. These funds are to be used for the following purposes: to hire additional firefighting personnel; to train personnel in fire fighting, emergency response, arson, prevention, and detection or the handling of hazardous materials; or to train firefighting personnel to provide any of the training described in this subparagraph. There is no greater threat facing this Nation today than weapons of mass destruction, and as we listened to the very able work being done by the Attorney General of the United States and others in connection with the crisis of September 11, they are obligated to tell this Nation that we cannot ring the all clear sign, that we have many problems and it could possibly include weapons of mass destruction of the type of chemical or biological. It is difficult for me to enunciate that in this Chamber. That is precisely what these funds are to be used for, to train firefighters. They are oftentimes both professional and volunteer. I thank my colleague. Last year, I remember, we wanted to give parity with the professional volunteer. That has been done. They are the first on the scene. Unless they have some training to make an assessment right away, they themselves could become victims of a chemical or biological attack and their services would be incapacitated, depending on the problem. That training is included. It is important. There are funds to protect firefighting personnel at the scenes of fire and other emergencies. In New York City there was tremendous personal risk in these situations trying to extract survivors and yet at the same time confronted with a weakened structure, smoke, and all types of things. They themselves could be trapped. Special training is required for extricating the firemen as well as the remaining victims. Other uses of the funds: To certify firefighters, to establish wellness and fitness programs for firefighting personnel, to ensure that the firefighting personnel can carry out their duties--there are tremendous arduous, physical requirements for the men and women who bravely wear the uniforms of firefighters; to fund emergency medical services provided by fire departments--more and more often, they are the first on the scene to render the basic necessities of medical care and to save lives; to acquire additional firefighting vehicles, including firetrucks. We all have romance about the firetrucks. I know some of the volunteer groups in my State kept the old truck to remind them of the need to get a new truck, but they never seem to discard the old truck. In times of the parade, the old truck comes out and everybody is proud to see it again. However, we have to get state-of-the-art equipment; to acquire additional firefighting equipment, including equipment for communications and monitoring; to acquire personnel protective equipment, required for firefighting personnel, by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other personnel protective equipment for firefighting personnel; to modify fire stations, fire- training facilities, and other facilities to protect the health and safety of firefighting personnel; to enforce fire codes; to fund fire prevention programs; to educate the public about arson prevention and detection; or to provide incentives for the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighting personnel for volunteer firefighting departments and other firefighting departments that utilize volunteers. I commend our distinguished colleague. I am proud to be a cosponsor on this important piece of legislation.

Mr. WARNER. I accept, certainly, the statement by the Senator. I understand Senator McCain still has this matter under advisement.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. WARNER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, the chairman is correct. We believed we had it worked out, and at the last minute there was an objection on this side.

Mr. WARNER. Madam President, the amendments have been cleared on this side.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I say to my distinguished chairman, I would presume then that this amendment would have a rollcall vote sometime tomorrow.

Mr. WARNER. On that subject, while I personally am supportive of the goals of the amendment, I must reserve the rights of Senators on this side, particularly those on the Commerce Committee. I would presume that the chairman and ranking member may desire to at least address the Senate on this matter prior to any final action on the Senator's amendment.

Mr. WARNER. Again, reserving the right to object, we do have a stack of agreed-upon amendments. As soon as we get that behind us, our staffs can devote their time to additional amendments. So I ask the Senator from Connecticut, how much time will he want for the presentation of his amendment and such rebuttal or concurrence that may be made or voiced by other colleagues? Then we can get some better idea how soon we can return to the issue of amendments.

Mr. WARNER. May I also inquire of the chairman and the Senator from Minnesota, our colleague from Connecticut has an amendment directly related in some respects to aspects of the bill----

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, is the subject matter of the address of the Senator from Minnesota relevant to the pending matter before the Senate; namely, the Armed Forces bill?

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I might take a few minutes, I think it is important that the Record of the proceedings today also make reference to the fact that I and many others believe that the events of September 11 spoke volumes for the President's position that we should not at this time be in any way less than forceful in trying to explore all the options to develop a limited defense system protecting this Nation against a limited attack such as future generations, when they look back at this hour of tragedy, will say that our country did not move forward on all fronts. None of this would have been envisioned. We did not envision the tragedies of September 11. In many respects, some still cannot envision that this country needs a defense against limited attack. I must say yes, I accept my distinguished chairman's statement to the effect that he made certain decisions. I commend him for it. But I believe several of us had spoken to him in the context of what was going to be undertaken had that decision not been reached by our chairman. I inquire of the chairman: We want to have our colleague have his opportunity to speak here momentarily. Could we get some time estimate because work is being done on this side.

Mr. WARNER. I thank my good friend and colleague.

Mr. WARNER. I associate myself with those remarks from a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We are pleased that he has continued this long association, although his duties are very heavy in other areas. It is interesting that only John Stennis was ever chairman of the Appropriations Committee and also served on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was a great and dear friend of yours, we know, and teacher to all Members. We thank our colleague for this very important speech he has given today.

Mr. WARNER. Would you permit me to incorporate in your UC a request that 30 minutes be granted to the chairman and ranking member of the Commerce Committee prior to any vote on the amendment by our colleague from Connecticut?