Jon Kyl: “as a cosponsor of the Warner amendment, maybe I can offer a little solace to my colleague from Nebraska, which I think…”

“as a cosponsor of the Warner amendment, maybe I can offer a little solace to my colleague from Nebraska, which I think is consistent with the intent of the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. First of all, as the Senator from Colorado pointed out, the primary point of the Warner amendment is to ensure that two specific studies are done; that this cannot be done just on the certification of the President. That is the primary distinction between this amendment and the amendment from the Senator from Nebraska. With respect to those two studies, one of them is the quadrennial review. That is the review that Congress now requires of the President every 4 years. It is a very long set of requirements that take all of the defense needs of the country into account in a coordinated, structured way. It is in that context that I believe, incidentally, Governor Bush would probably want to have this review done. I can't speak for Governor Bush. But I am certain after having talked to him that he has in mind approaching our defense structure generally in a somewhat different way than the past administration has. He has some different strategies in mind. My guess is that he would want the nuclear review to be done consistent with the quadrennial review so that the Nuclear Posture Review would be coordinated with the quadrennial review. That is precisely what the Warner amendment calls for.”