Haley Stevens: “That proves it. The Senators do not know how many of the other 200 amendments are going to come out here on this bill. I…”

“That proves it. The Senators do not know how many of the other 200 amendments are going to come out here on this bill. I have stated time and time again this bill must be passed and sent to conference before we leave this week. We will not leave this week until we finish this bill. I have told the Senate time and time again the emergency supplemental is attached to this bill for Iraq and the war on terror and Afghanistan. Those items must be approved by the President no later than November 15. We had a supplemental for the past fiscal year, 2005. This is the supplemental for 2006, and 2006 started October 1. We have a continuing resolution we are operating on for the basic operations of the Defense Department, but there is no continuing operation for the supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror. This must be passed. The Committee on Armed Services knows this. The Senator from Virginia, I must correct. Never before in history has a bill been offered to the appropriations bill and been subject to amendment. We have taken the authorization bill twice during my time on the Appropriations Committee in full, already agreed to by the committee, and taken it to conference. We have never accepted a portion of a Defense authorization bill and left it open to amendment. Why? The Senate can see right now why. The managers have not reached an agreement on their bill. The committee has not reached an agreement on their bill.…”