Jim Inhofe: “I would suggest that the War Powers Act does specifically say that the President has the very power to enter our troops…”

“I would suggest that the War Powers Act does specifically say that the President has the very power to enter our troops into combat. It shouldn't be necessary to say. People are asking me questions and calling up and asking: Where are we on the NDAA? I want to make a few comments about that and then give an exact status as to where we are right now. We said it before, but we can't overstate this: This NDAA bill is going to pass. We know it is going to pass. It has passed for 57 consecutive years, and it is one that has to pass because this is the most important bill of the year. Last night, we adopted a managers' package of some 45 bipartisan amendments. This is on top of some 300 amendments that we already have gone through in the committee. I want to say with my counterpart here--Senator Reed--that we are in total agreement on the procedures we should be following. We are in agreement on an open amendment process. Both the Democratic and Republican leadership are committed to an open amendment process. We have been trying to set that up, and we have not been shortchanging or shortcutting anyone's ability to be heard on their amendment, because we have already gone through 300 of these in committee, and then it passed unanimously to the floor. That is something that doesn't happen very often. I hope that we can have more amendments throughout this process. We are working to get consent to do that. I think we can make it happen.…”