Mike Levin: “as always, the Senate is very much in the debt of our chairman, John Warner, an extraordinary human being and leader.…”

“as always, the Senate is very much in the debt of our chairman, John Warner, an extraordinary human being and leader. This could not have happened without his leadership. My staff, Dick Debobes, and all of our minority staff deserve extraordinary credit for getting this done. It would have taken twice as long but for our staff. I don't know--16 legislative days. It would have been double that number of days but for our staff, Judy Ansley and her staff. We thank them. Our staff worked together on a bipartisan basis. The Nation and our men and women in the Armed Forces owe them a huge debt. It is our staff--they will never know the names of our staff, probably, but they will be safer, more secure, better trained, better equipped, and have better benefits because of the work of our staff and the members of our committee who worked on a bipartisan basis under the leadership of John Warner. Again, I take my hat off to our chairman. He has really done a wonderful job on this bill. It took a little longer than expected, but again we worked through a huge number of amendments, perhaps a record number of amendments.”