Byron Dorgan: “some of my colleagues have said they would like a vote on their amendments prior to cloture. My hope is that we will not…”

“some of my colleagues have said they would like a vote on their amendments prior to cloture. My hope is that we will not have a cloture vote, by the way. I think the best Defense authorization bills that we have had in the Congress have been those that have been debated on the Senate floor for a week or two where we have had a substantial opportunity to think through and debate significant and difficult issues. So I would hope we will not have a cloture vote tomorrow. If in fact we do, I will join my colleague from Oklahoma and others who suggest that I would like a vote prior to cloture because his amendments and mine would fall postcloture. That is one of the dilemmas of cloture. Clearly, my amendment deals with something that is very important, that attends to the money we are spending on defense and the money we are going to authorize to be spent on defense, but because of the way it is written and the subject, it will fall postcloture. For that reason, I hope we will not invoke cloture tomorrow. I thank my colleagues for the time and hope they will seriously consider both amendments I have described today.”