Tony Thurmond: “I want to take a few minutes before the Senate begins consideration of the fiscal year 1998 Defense authorization bill…”

“I want to take a few minutes before the Senate begins consideration of the fiscal year 1998 Defense authorization bill to explain why the Armed Services Committee filed two separate Defense authorization bills. Yesterday, as most of you observed, there was objection to a consent request to take up S. 924, the bill the committee reported to the floor for consideration. This objection was based on a number of provisions involving public depots--specifically--Air Force Logistics Centers. Senator Inhofe, the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee included these provisions in his subcommittee markup. They were approved by the subcommittee and the full committee in the markup and therefore were included in the bill which the committee voted unanimously to report to the floor. Senators from other States who did not agree to these provisions would not consent to S. 924 being considered by the Senate. I believe all Senators acted in the interests of their states and their perception of what was in the best interests of the Government. This issue affects a great many jobs in all of these States and is an important economic issue within each State. I want to commend Senator Inhofe for stepping forward and offering to strip these provisions out of the bill.”