John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. My distinguished ranking member is always prepared. We want to make sure the Senator from Nebraska has a copy.

Mr. WARNER. Section 1302 of 1998. I left mine in the office inadvertently.

Mr. WARNER. I understand that. The repeal of the limitation in a previous authorization act of 1998--does the Senator have a copy of 1998?

Mr. WARNER. We cannot block this President. Nor would we try.

Mr. WARNER. The Senator repeatedly says he presumes. I am not here to act on presumptions. What I do know is the realities, and particularly the political realities that face this Nation of an election and a new President. In my opinion, it is the wiser course of action to defer such decisions as this until the next President is in office; he has his quadrennial review; he has his detailed study of our strategic arsenal. Then those decisions.

Mr. WARNER. I am not in a position to say what he did or did not do.

Mr. WARNER. I am not here to prejudge that review. I think it was done very carefully. But let me bring to the attention of my distinguished colleague, who spent great heroism in his career in the military himself, you should not try to make a decision with reference to the strategic capabilities of this country without reference, as needed in the quadrennial review, to the convention. In other words, you cannot just look at that in isolation. It has to be examined in the context of the totality of our military assets, and the quadrennial review has to be done and upgraded.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, if I might interject myself, as this is drawn, I can easily amend it so that the next President can bring about the necessary infrastructure of studies and have them completed on a timetable to accelerate it so it is not tied to December. The way this is drawn, it is due in December. But I do not interpret that to preclude an earlier assessment by the next President. What I say to the Senator most respectfully is, practically speaking, under the current administration you have several years in which to do this work and bring it up to date. It simply has not been done. I just think, practically speaking, this President would be ill- advised to try in the remaining period of a few months to do this type of important thing and to have these studies suddenly brought up.

Mr. WARNER. At this time I do not think it is necessary. I will ask the Chair, for the purposes of clarity, is the amendment of the Senator from Virginia in order?

Mr. WARNER. There was some concern, technically, heretofore that it was not.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, we will lay aside this amendment for the time being.

Mr. WARNER. Why don't we put in a brief quorum call, Mr. President. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I have consulted with my distinguished colleague, and I am going to now send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. WARNER. I was about to do that. It is so hard for the current generation of people to remember that period. Both of us do. I happen to have been in uniform. I remember where we had a little book of stamps, savings bonds, and you put your quarter stamps in. You were rationing butter, meat, shoes and clothing. We never thought about it. It was our way of backing the men and women in uniform. I remember it was 3 gallons, I think, a week of gasoline that you had. My father was a doctor, and I remember that doctors had an additional allocation of gasoline so they could make hospital calls and visit homes. It was just an extraordinary hour in America, the way there was a total effort.

Mr. WARNER. Yes. I remember picking up little bits off the cigarette packs and the tin foil.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, does the Senator remember the collection of scrap metal? I will never forget it. In those days, the Nation's Capital, where we lived, had great big trash trucks, and the trucks ran overtime. They would come down the street, and people would come out and put all kinds of scrap metal in the trucks. I remember the person who lived across from me came out with an armful of magnificent guns-- shotguns and rifles that belonged to her husband--and the trash guys looked at them and just threw them in the truck. I don't know that those guns ever got to the scrap heap, but I remember that as if it were yesterday.

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I thank the Chair and thank my colleagues for working out this UC. If I could just make an announcement, in light of this agreement, there will be no further votes tonight. However, Members should be aware that at least two, and up to four, back-to-back votes will occur sometime tomorrow commencing at around 12:30 p.m.

Mr. WARNER. Let's proceed with the vote.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the managers will address the question of how we proceed from here at the conclusion of the vote on the McCain amendment. Let us proceed. I would suggest the yeas and nays have been ordered.

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

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.