John Warner

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. We are trying to repose as much discretion in the managers as possible. Your amendment will be treated equally with the others. But at the moment we are not going to try to sequence the deliberation.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, with respect to amendment No. 394, I ask a modification to the amendment be accepted. I send the modification to the desk. (The text of the amendment (No. 394), as modified, is printed in today's Record under ``Amendments Submitted.'')

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. I thank my good friend for his cooperation and understanding. This is an important chapter of naval history. Some of our colleagues have not had the opportunity to look at it as extensively as has the Senator, plus I think the record of some live testimony will be helpful. So to inform Senators, the Senator from New Hampshire will proceed for such time as he desires to conclude his opening statement. Then following that, the Senator from New Hampshire will send to the desk an amendment relating to funding on the Kosovo operations; am I not correct on that, I ask the Senator?

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

Mr. WARNER

Mr. WARNER. My understanding is the Senator from Michigan does not desire any time.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to accommodate the Senator. I presume you would want 3 minutes for each side to speak to the amendment prior to that vote taking place.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I commend the distinguished majority leader for this initiative. We have had in his office a series of meetings with the chairmen, as he enumerated, and this piece of legislation has been very carefully crafted drawing from each of the committees the work they have done thus far. The Senate Armed Services Committee, as the majority leader has said, has taken an active role in addressing the issues. I refer colleagues to page 462 of our report, which is on each desk. In there, we have a subtitle (D) related to this subject. We are bringing this together. I thought it was important--and I consulted with the majority leader this morning--to lay this down so all Senators have the opportunity to view it. Our distinguished colleague, the ranking member, has sent it out to the various Departments and agencies of the Federal Government for comment. In the course of the day, as I am sure my colleague from Michigan will agree, we will basically try to allow Senators at any time to address this particular amendment by Senator Lott and, indeed, the provisions that we have in our bill. This is an important subject. It is a timely subject. All Senators hopefully will strive to achieve bipartisanship because we recognize that this problem goes back several administrations, although I have my own personal views that this administration must account for some actions which I find very disturbing--in other words, why corrective measures were not brought about more expeditiously. But time will tell. Also, I believe it is important to recognize that the United States of America in the next millennium will be faced with an ever-growing and ever-important nation, China. We as a nation must remain engaged with China, whether it is on economic, political, human rights, or security issues. China and the United States are the two dominant leaders, together with Japan and, indeed, I think South Korea, in that region to bring about the security which is desperately needed. So let us hope that in due course we can, on this bill, put together a bipartisan package. We already have one amendment in there, and it passed our committee with bipartisan support.

Mr. WARNER. Absolutely.

Mr. WARNER. Of course.

Mr. WARNER. I thank my distinguished colleague. If I may note, with a sense of humility, Senator Levin and I are now entering the third day on this bill. To the best of my recollection-- which is 21 years that we have been working together on authorizations bills--we may have set a record thus far. That record is not necessarily owing to the efforts of the ranking member and myself but all Senators in cooperating in moving this bill along; the record being we only had one quorum call, this being the third day. We started on a Monday, when ordinarily things do not move as quickly; but we had one single quorum call, I think, for about 3 or 4 minutes on Monday. Yesterday, throughout, we stayed here until close to 9 o'clock last night working on amendments. So I thank the Senator, my colleague, my friend from Michigan. I thank all Senators. We just had another Senator come on the floor in a timely way. He is right on the split second of when he is due to bring up his amendment. So with the cooperation of other Senators, I am hopeful we can finish this bill tonight. I have discussed that with the majority leader, and he is going to give us total support. We will just drive this engine, hopefully into the early hours of the evening, and complete it. But I do bring to the attention of Senators that I will place on the majority leader's desk here, as I manage the bill, three pages of amendments. There they are. We have to work our way through these today. My colleague, Mr. Levin, and I will be here throughout the day to assist Senators in accommodating them with their desire regarding these amendments.

Mr. WARNER. Yes.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the Senator is correct.

Mr. WARNER. That is correct. We want to give the Senator as much latitude as we can. We will find such time as I believe the Senator desires. I am just anxious to frame this issue, because the Senator has given a brilliant speech, as he always does. I do not say that facetiously. I enjoy listening to my good friend and colleague and fellow naval person. But I was listening, and he is making a good speech for ballistic missile defense, which is splendid. I hope that we are going to draw on this Record for future debates on ballistic missile defense systems. I take note of Senator Cochran's bill now that has become law. But the point I wish to make is that this provision, which the Senator wishes to strike, has been in five successive defensive bills. It is in there in accordance with the administration's wishes to try to show to Russia that we mean business about getting START II ratified. Were we to strike it, it is this Senator's opinion--I think it is shared by the Secretary of Defense, and others--it would weaken the efforts to get START II ratified. We have here the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. All I would ask is, if we could just have a few minutes to frame the debate into a focus of Senators following it, I think they can come to some sort of closure in their own minds on this issue.

Mr. WARNER. We interrupted the Senator. Would he yield for an additional question on procedure?

Mr. WARNER. Fifteen minutes. We had such great cooperation from all. We have a string of Senators ready to be here at 11:45. Let's say we will conclude at 12 noon; is that agreeable?

Mr. WARNER. I want to accommodate our distinguished colleague. If we don't proceed, I say to my copartner, in getting time agreements, we are likely to get this whole bill slowed down. I wonder if we could just enter into a time agreement to debate on this amendment, that it would conclude at 12 noon.

Mr. WARNER. Let me help. The distinguished chairman of the subcommittee says 10 minutes; I may take 2 minutes. That is 12 minutes. The Senator would have a full half hour left.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, will the Senator allow me to address the Senate with regard to a unanimous consent request which he and I have shared? I will just present it. I ask unanimous consent that time until 1:45 today be equally divided on the BRAC amendment between the proponents and opponents, with the vote beginning, as under the previous order, at 1:45 today.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Michigan and I had discussed the possibility of Senator Kerrey coming in. I am committed to the 1-hour time agreement. We are advised by Senator Kerrey he would not be available to utilize that time period after the 1:45 vote. I will be working to determine what we can bring up following the 1:45 vote.

Mr. WARNER. Therefore, all the communities across the country, once a BRAC process is initiated, they go to general quarters and they hire these expensive lobbyists and all types of people to try to make sure their case, should it work its way up through the system, is treated fairly. That is all they really ask. Unless there is trust in the system, we cannot achieve a commission concept of closures. Maybe we can induce the Secretary of Defense to try it the old- fashioned way and give it a shot. I commit to work fairly and objectively if you put it right on the table. I thank the leader for his strong position.

Mr. WARNER. I will do that.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, it is interesting the leader brings up ``the old-fashioned way,'' because when I was Secretary of the Navy, circa 1971, 1972, 1973, I closed the Boston Naval Shipyard and the destroyer base, where Senator Jack Reed and Senator Chafee were very much interested in that. We did it the old-fashioned way. I must say we came down here and we had hearings. I remember in the caucus room, Senators Pastore and Pell sat there and grilled me and the Chief of Naval Operations for the better part of a day. But it worked out. So there is a precedent for doing it the old-fashioned way. I say to my distinguished leader, I was the coauthor of the first BRAC bill and the second BRAC bill. But the commission concept was predicated on trust and fairness. Regrettably, Mr. Leader, that was lost in the last round when, as you know, in the California and Texas situations, the sticky fingerprints of politics got in there.

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, just to advise the Senate, there is a likelihood the Senator from Washington will be recognized for an amendment at the completion of this vote. It is still being worked on, but we hope to be able to accommodate the Senator. The pending business, of course, at the end of the vote, would be the Lott amendment.

Mr. WARNER. Fine. I thank the Chair for the guidance. I thought the amendment had been logged in. Mr. LEVIN addressed the Chair.

Mr. WARNER. I yield the floor.