Haley Stevens: “I am disturbed that we are delayed in taking up the Defense appropriations bill for 2006. It has been a problem. We have…”

“I am disturbed that we are delayed in taking up the Defense appropriations bill for 2006. It has been a problem. We have to wait for the authorization bill to come before the Senate. I have asked the leader for permission to take up this bill, along with my colleague from Hawaii, and bring the Defense appropriations bill for 2006 before the Senate today. I understand that has been objected to on some procedural ground. It is my intention to make the statement I would make if the bill were before us. I will later ask that it be printed in the Record when the bill is laid before us. I think the Senate should be using this time. We had intended to have votes today and tomorrow. We will not have votes Monday and Tuesday, but the bill will be before the Senate Monday and Tuesday. We tried our best to work with the Armed Services Committee on their authorization bill, and we have a dispute between our subcommittee and the Intelligence Committee. That dispute pertains to a matter that should not be discussed on the floor. It is one we thought we had worked out by virtue of a compromise provision we put into this Defense appropriations bill, and I hope the members of the Intelligence Committee will recognize that as such.”