John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. Senator Byrd is a member of our committee and he has a key piece of legislation in here. It is my hope that we can have Senators speak briefly so that we can get on to the issue by Senator Kerrey.

Mr. WARNER. And Senator Robb, our valued colleague, a member of the committee, is about to address his issues.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I want to make sure I hear because I have Senator Domenici and Senator Gramm of Texas. I, first, want to thank our very valued Member, Senator Byrd, of the committee. I was privileged to join him on the legislation on the China Commission. I can't tell you how our committee benefits from his work and wisdom that he has given us through the many years. I thank the Senator.

Mr. WARNER. We thank the Senator.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, Senator Levin and I will endeavor to see what we can do to convenience the Senate and keep this bill moving. Our esteemed colleague, Senator Kerrey, has his time reserved. We want to have several others before we get to his issue, if that is agreeable. Senator Reed has been waiting, Senator Gramm, and Senator Domenici.

Mr. WARNER. Senator Cleland, a member of the Armed Services Committee. Let's alternate between sides.

Mr. WARNER. Senator Domenici, on my time for another 5 minutes.

Mr. WARNER. Then we go to Senator Gramm, who has his time under the unanimous-consent agreement. It would be our hope the Senator will consume less than the allocated amount under the unanimous consent.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, on my time I thank my colleague for bringing this to our attention. I commend him for the fervor with which he has taken the interest of these very vital laboratories, some of which are in his State, and spent inordinate amounts of time in his Senate career trying to strengthen them and look after the employees. I know how difficult it was for him to work through the complicated case which was recently disposed of. I worked with the Senator in the creation of this new entity in the Department of Energy. I am about to get some new documents. Once I get them, I want to show them to you and we may find a little time to amplify this record. But I am advised, subject to the documents coming, we did take into consideration the concerns the Senator has expressed, and we do have a letter from the individual primarily responsible for security saying they could work with this proposal, this language. Until I get that letter, I will withhold. But I may ask unanimous consent to have documents printed in the Record, should I get them in my possession, after showing them to my good friend and colleague, the Senator from New Mexico.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I commend our distinguished majority leader. This bill had a long and tortuous course through the Senate, but he stood by our side, not only me, as chairman, but the members of the committee from both sides of the aisle, and the Democratic leader likewise. I see the presence of the distinguished Senator from Nevada. On those days when we were on again and off the next, you stood by. Last year, you were the first one to cosponsor the bill on the pay raise, the first one this year to cosponsor the bill on the medical benefits. While you are no longer a member of our committee, having once been one, you have stood with us throughout this whole process. I thank you.

Mr. WARNER. I inquire how much time our distinguished colleague and very valuable member of the committee, without whose wit and function I doubt we could function, requires.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I again thank our distinguished colleague from Georgia. His knowledge of the military and his real love and deep respect for them to this day is an invaluable contribution to our committee. I thank him for his hard work and his extensive travel to military bases and installations in the United States, as well as abroad.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we should add to that--Senator Levin and I--how hard the Senator fought with respect to amendments on the GI bill for portability of the benefits, enabling the service person to have a quantity of those benefits--whatever fraction might be agreed on in law--to be passed on to a spouse or a child. I supported that and fought that battle with you, I say to the Senator. We did not win. We lost in conference. But, I say to the Senator, we will start that next year. Now I would like to refer to the UC agreement which is governing this debate. I will read from it: That following the debate just outlined-- that is basically what we have had to date--Senator Bob Kerrey be recognized to make a point of order, and that the motion to waive the Budget Act be limited to 2 hours, equally divided in the usual form. It also states: I further ask unanimous consent that following the use or yielding back of time on the motion to waive, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion and, if waived, a vote occur immediately on adoption of the conference report, without any intervening action, motion, or debate. The one remaining thing is, I intend to fairly--and I am sure my colleague from Michigan does as well--deal with Senator Phil Gramm, who unavoidably had to leave the floor. But let us proceed now under this order with the recognition of our colleague, Senator Kerrey.

Mr. WARNER. No, I didn't put it in the form of a UC.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the Senator raises a correct point. But I want to protect Senator Gramm of Texas.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, it would be, because I have not yielded back time on the UC. I was just trying to keep this thing moving in an informal way, protecting our colleague from Texas. I would be willing to yield back my 14 minutes. I presume the Senator would be willing to yield back his 59. Because the two of us have time under the debate of the motion of the Senator from Nebraska. So I think we are adequately protected. That would move this forward and shorten the time between now and the vote.

Mr. WARNER. Reserving the right to object, I want to clarify, I am not certain at what juncture Senator Gramm would be recognized. Again, he is unavoidably away from the floor. But we could proceed, presumably under Senator Kerrey's motion and my motion that I would make, and really have the vote on that, and then Senator Gramm could be recognized if he can't be recognized beforehand. So I am prepared to yield back 14 minutes. As I understand it, the Senator from Michigan yields back 59 minutes. Let's have action on that.

Mr. WARNER. The unanimous consent request is that I yield back my 14 minutes remaining under the existing unanimous consent agreement, and the Senator from Michigan yields back 59 minutes, with the understanding that the UC agreement which provides 1 hour under the control of Senator Gramm remain intact.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I know there are moments in the life of a Senator that they will never forget. This is one I will not forget. I don't have a better friend in the Senate than my good friend from Nebraska. I don't know of any Senator--well, perhaps Senator Inouye, of course--who has more rightfully earned the respect of this body and, more specifically, the men and women of the Armed Forces for his courageous acts in the field of battle in Vietnam. I was privileged to be in the Navy Secretariat with our recently departed, beloved former Senator Chafee, who was then Secretary when the Medal of Honor was awarded my good friend. I have to say to my friend that, yes, in law, it is not clear about their entitlement, but in every other respect--sometimes the law is silent--these people were, time and time again, told they would have for life their health care. I want to draw a distinction which was not clear in the Senator's otherwise very able presentation. He talked about his service, indeed my service, which was very insignificant compared to his, but we both served in the Navy at different times. I think I have some faint recollection of this, but it was long ago; I won't rest my laurels on that. You went in initially not with the idea of becoming a careerist, and there may have been a point in your career when you did think about staying for 20 years. The people who are entitled under this legislation are the ones who devoted their careers--a minimum of 20 years and often more years of service--to the military. It is not those like myself who served for briefer periods in World War II and brief periods in Korea. This legislation doesn't cover them. It would not cover you, regardless of your injuries which entitled you to other medical care that you received that was service connected. My point is, the person who goes in for one hitch as an enlisted man, one tour as an officer, they are not the beneficiaries under this. It is that class of individuals who, together with their families, have dedicated a career, who have moved, who responded to the call to go overseas many times, in most instances. That is what this legislation is for. I would like to have the Senator comment on that.

Mr. WARNER. It should be knocking on our door.

Mr. WARNER. It is the obligation of the Congress to fix Medicare and, indeed, I know of initiative----

Mr. WARNER. It was intentionally devised that way. When I made reference to the nonmilitary people in this country who are not, of course, eligible because of absence of a career in military service, Congress should be addressing that issue. I know of initiatives time and again to try to do that. Regrettably, it will probably not be done in the waning days of this Congress, but we have an obligation to these people. Do you realize if we had not made this program permanent, we would be casting on these individuals--most of whom are over 65 to 70, and some are medically retired--they would be forced to make a decision to drop their private insurance, which they had to go out and buy? They have to make other decisions because they would not be certain that Congress at some future date would make it permanent. So that is why we had to go down this road. I will yield in a moment. First, I want to show my good friend something that I found. I went out and did some research on this because I have spent endless hours trying to figure out the facts. I have found this recruiting poster for the U.S. Army. Can the Senator read it from there?

Mr. WARNER. ``Superb health care. Health care is provided to you and your family members while you are in the Army, and for the rest of your life if you serve a minimum of 20 years of active Federal service.'' This is an actual official recruiting document. I daresay there are many others like it from World War II to this date. If you are a young man or a young woman enlisting today and this is printed by the U.S. Army, you believe it.

Mr. WARNER. Yes.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, first, if I might reply, I respect the Senator from Nebraska. I associate myself with his remarks that the military did more for him than he gave to the military. That is certainly true in my case. I don't think it is true in his. I think he served with the greatest distinction, and this country is everlastingly in the Senator's personal debt. Certainly, for this humble soul, the military did more for me than I did for it. I have said that on the floor a dozen times. There is living proof of promises made. I have shown you the difficulty facing the aged people over 65 and into their seventies who have to make a decision depending on the vote about to be taken in this Senate. They were made to commit one way or another by their Nation. I think they are deserving, having given their careers, families, spouses, whatever. I urge that Members of the Senate join me in waiving this Budget Act. I yield the floor.