Dan Coats

I too am privileged, like the rest of us, to have served in this body as an associate and colleague of Strom Thurmond. I was 5 years old when Strom Thurmond ran for President. I learned about him in studying history and government in…

it is with reluctance I rise to oppose the amendment offered by my colleague, the Senator from Texas, because we share much the same goal. We had the same concerns about the deployment of our troops to Bosnia initially. We had the same…

We were attempting to do a significant cleanup of a statute that has not been modified in any real way since 1981. We were informed that these programs were obsolete and had not received funding from the Department of Health and Human…

America currently struggles with a disturbing and growing trend of youth violence. Between 1985 and 1994, the arrest rate for murders by juveniles increased 150 percent, while the rate for adults during this time increased 11 percent…

I cannot vote to support that if I don't know whether or not my State is going to be penalized. Does the Senator know the answer to that question relative to the State of Indiana?

We may have the makings of a real deal here. From what I hear it is that the Senator from Massachusetts and the Senator from Iowa are willing to put the whole program out for bid. And if we would take the whole program, including what is…

I thought I heard the proposal that the virtues of the market system were so wonderful that the whole thing ought to be put out into the market system, and that is probably a good idea. So why--I don't understand; you can't have it both…

this bill represents a strong bi-partisan consensus on the Labor Committee to ensure that students maintain access to post-secondary education through vital student opportunity programs, such as TRIO; healthy, stable, and streamlined loan…

I join the Senator from Connecticut in saying I think the Senator's efforts are laudable. I do think, as the Senator from Vermont has enumerated, there is a lot of language in this bill which I think reflects what the Senator from New…

Of the $85 million set aside for the EDI account in S. 2168--as stated in S. Rept. 105-216--only $67 million earmarked for individual projects in 40 states. It appears funding is available for additional projects within the appropriated…

I strongly support an initiative to establish a Quadrennial Intelligence Review and an independent, nonpartisan National Intelligence Panel. This process can be modeled after the Military Force Structure Review Act of 1986 which passed the…

this may sound surprising, but the committee agrees with Senator Bumpers. We have studied this and we absolutely have language in this bill that requires testing before we buy or before we fly. We have carefully worked out a compromise on…

I believe the words we have agreed to here will encourage the Department to emphasize hiring high quality instructors for the Department's schools. In my view, the most appropriate vehicle at this point to incorporate this initiative in…

this is an emotional subject, a difficult subject. I am former chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee and still a member of that subcommittee. And it is an issue at which I have looked and studied and struggled with for some time. I have…

very briefly, in the time we have, I don't enjoy opposing matters offered by my friend from Oklahoma, but I have a fundamental disagreement with him on this particular issue. We do four basic things in defense: We pay for people and their…

Mr. President, since 1979 the Department of Defense has prohibited the use of Federal funds to perform abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother. The bill before us today, the Department of Defense…

No, the Senator didn't take it that way at all. The Senator is simply trying to get an answer to his question as it applied to the language in the Byrd-Hutchison amendment which has been talked about today, and trying to understand the…

No; it was not. Congress had no role in that whatsoever. This Senator believes there is subsequent evidence in the reports that followed up on that tragedy which indicate that political decisions were made by people within the…

And I want to make sure that everyone understands that the amendment that is before the Senate, the sense of the Congress, does not address that question, is not meant to address that question.

I will conclude, so that my colleague, Senator Levin, may proceed, simply by saying that we asked for the Department of Defense response to this amendment. They reported back. The Department of Defense says: The Department has no objection…

But I am having difficulty understanding how the power of Congress to regulate troop levels--and I understand that we set force levels. The Congress, through our committee, authorizes certain force levels for the Army, for the Navy, and…

I do not understand where in the Constitution the power is vested in Congress to specify not the total force level but to specify military strategy.

The duties of Commander in Chief are to direct that Army, to deploy that Army when necessary to defend the United States.

How are we to interpret the role and the meaning of the word ``Commander in Chief''?

I wonder if the Senator could point out that portion of the constitutional powers that grants Congress that authority.