Haley Stevens: “let me begin by saying, very succinctly, a vote against this issue of germaneness is not a vote against defense. This is…”

“let me begin by saying, very succinctly, a vote against this issue of germaneness is not a vote against defense. This is the Defense appropriations bill. It is meant to carry the money to the Department of Defense and all of those involved in defense. It is not meant to carry the authorization. That is what rule XVI is all about. What we are looking at now is the Defense authorization bill being brought to this bill in part. This is not the whole bill. This is just part A; B and C were left out. This is not going to finish debate on the authorization bill. It will only take up a part of it. There are a whole series of amendments that have been offered to the authorization bill, and, as a matter of fact, Senator Warner has offered now two packages of amendments that have been approved by himself and Senator Levin. But they have not been considered, as far as we are concerned, as amendments to the appropriations bill. But that is what they want. They want us to accept their portion of the bill plus their amendments to the bill without any consideration for anybody. This is 108 amendments en bloc, not agreed to by the managers of this bill but agreed to by the would-be managers of the Defense authorization bill. Offering the authorization bill to this bill without an agreement is an enormous precedent. I have been involved now 38 years, almost.…”