Jim Inhofe: “reserving the right to object, we just heard a very lengthy explanation of an amendment that no one had seen until about…”

“reserving the right to object, we just heard a very lengthy explanation of an amendment that no one had seen until about an hour ago--at least I don't know of anyone who has. I think the Senator from Tennessee has every right to do what he can to get his amendment heard, and there are opportunities other than the Defense Authorization bill. One of the problems--and I have worked on these Defense authorization bills for years and years--decades--is that they know it is going to pass. It has passed for 57 consecutive years. So a lot of people who want to put in things that are nongermane and very often controversial want to put them on that because they know it is going to pass. Senator Corker's is not the only amendment that is a problem amendment for this. There are two other nongermane amendments, one by Senator Lee and one by Senator Paul. They say: If I don't get a vote on my amendment, then I am going to stop all other amendments from coming up, so nobody gets to have an amendment. At the same time that they are saying that about the Paul amendment and the Lee amendment, we have other Members, such as Senator Grassley and Senator Graham, who are both saying: We are going to make sure you don't get a vote on that. So, whatever the case is, you have opposing parties saying: If you get a vote on something I disagree with, I am going to stop all amendments from coming forth. In a way, they can do that, and I can see that happening right now.…”