Pete Sessions: “We need to be moving forward with the Defense bill. It is very important. I am a member of Armed Services Committee, and…”

“We need to be moving forward with the Defense bill. It is very important. I am a member of Armed Services Committee, and we had a good bipartisan vote out of committee to bring the bill to the floor. Chairman Levin has been fair to us in committee, so we got a good committee process. But there are some disagreements over a number of issues that the full Senate needs to discuss and vote on. They just should be able to do that. We are drifting into a process that is absolutely contrary to the history of the Senate--the real concept of the U.S. Senate--where we bring matters up and vote on them. Just because it cleared our committee does not mean the full Senate does not get to vote on some of these differing opinions. I voted in the committee on a number of amendments that did not pass. We had amendments up in committee that we decided not to vote on, and the phrase was: Well, we will carry that to the floor. In other words, it will be brought up and the whole Senate will vote on it, not just the committee. Maybe in the interim something could be worked out. But if not, it would go to the full Senate, and the full Senate would work its will, would have its debate and vote. We are going days now with nothing happening, no amendments being voted on. They could have already been voted on. So Senator Reid has filled the tree, and that means he has complete control over the process. He has the ability to say we will not have a single amendment.…”