Mike Levin: “I join the chairman of the Armed Services Committee in bringing S. 936, the national defense authorization bill, to the…”

“I join the chairman of the Armed Services Committee in bringing S. 936, the national defense authorization bill, to the floor, and I want to congratulate the Senator from South Carolina for the extraordinary effort he has put in on this bill. He has really guided this bill through thick and thin, so that we are in a position where we can bring this bill to the floor. It is his commitment and his energy that he devotes to national defense that has made this possible. I congratulate him on that. I want to reiterate the comments of the chairman of the committee that we are here debating S. 936, which is the bill that was reported yesterday. Now, this bill is almost identical to S. 924, which was the version of the defense authorization bill that was reported earlier this week. The exception is that the bill before us does not contain certain provisions relative to depot maintenance that were in the earlier bill. That has been the subject of a number of colloquies here this afternoon. This bill meets the guidelines of the budget agreement and the fiscal year 1998 budget resolution. The members of the committee didn't agree on every provision; we never do, of course. There are several critical areas where I believe this bill needs to be improved. I will be working to make these improvements during the debate and during the conference.”