Mike Levin: “I join the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in filing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal…”

“I join the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in filing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, as an amendment to this bill. I also join the chairman in filing a managers' amendment incorporating many of the amendments that Members are offering to our bill. We and our staffs are working hard, and hope to clear more amendments as we move forward. This is not our preferred approach to this issue. We have always brought up and completed action on the Defense authorization bill as a freestanding bill in the past, and we would prefer to do so this year. Indeed, we have made and are continuing to make every effort to do so. I remain optimistic that we will be able to reach agreement to proceed to and complete action on the Defense authorization bill and that it will not be necessary to take up this amendment. This bill was unanimously reported out of the Armed Services Committee all the way back in May. It was brought to the Senate floor 2 months later, at the end of July. In the last week before the August recess, we attempted to enter a unanimous consent agreement which would have concluded debate on the bill in less that 2 days. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership rejected this proposal and pulled the bill off the floor before action could be completed, so that the Senate could instead consider the gun manufacturers' liability bill.…”