Mike Levin: “as a practical matter, I feel it is important that we make some progress on this issue this year. I might say it is a…”

“as a practical matter, I feel it is important that we make some progress on this issue this year. I might say it is a compliment to my friend from Virginia when I say ``progress,'' because we did make some progress in committee. Under the leadership of the Senator from Virginia, we did go partway toward the generic approach. As I indicated before, I compliment him for moving us in that direction. It is, in my view, at least a better Government provision to give the flexibility to the Guard and the Reserve to pick their most important priorities, rather than us trying to work through hundreds and hundreds of specific line items and, frankly, in a way which does not give adequate attention to the needs of the Guard. In order to make continued progress this year, and to take one step instead of losing one step, perhaps, on a rollcall vote, I am going to modify my amendment and strike the requirement that this bill be made entirely generic instead of its partial generic approach, leaving in the bill the requirement that we receive from the Reserves their priority lists by next December so that we will have them in front of us when we do our authorizing next year.”