Mike Levin: “If I can finish the sentence. I hope we can find a way consistent with the wonderful relationship which has existed…”

“If I can finish the sentence. I hope we can find a way consistent with the wonderful relationship which has existed between appropriators and authorizers in the defense area, that we can find a way to get this authorization bill before the Senate. We have tried to get it freestanding, without success. This is an opportunity to bring this bill to the Senate. As the Senator from Virginia said, we have over 100 items which have been cleared. That is not done for any sinister reason. That is done for a very simple way to expedite this bill so that the appropriators are not confronted with 100 amendments. The appropriators should not be confronted with an authorization bill where there are 150 amendments pending. The Senator from Virginia and this Senator have tried very hard to accommodate Senators on both sides of the aisle so we could help the appropriators, so we could represent to the appropriators that we would not be confronted with 100 or 150 amendments, but that a managers' package would be able to resolve most of those amendments. That has been done. It has been done in good faith. I hope that somehow or other the managers of this bill can find a way to help us bring this bill to the floor. There will not be more than perhaps a dozen amendments that would be offered to this bill, we think, because we believe we can work out most of the other amendments. That is my plea to the appropriators and to our good friends, the Senators from Alaska and Hawaii.”