National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Thank you, Mr. President. Let me also extend my thanks to the Senator from Oklahoma for his cooperation and leadership.

As he indicated very accurately, on a bipartisan basis, we considered numerous amendments. We were virtually unanimous at the conclusion of the committee deliberations in terms of bringing this bill to the floor.

His staff and the Democratic staff were working all weekend to prepare a package of amendments, which we think can be accepted unanimously as an initial step in the process, the managers' package. Then, like Senator Inhofe, I would like to see a process where we have a series of amendments from both sides, adequate time to debate the amendment, and then a vote on the amendment as we move forward. Then we are hoping to be able to do so in a very deliberate and thoughtful way, and reach, we hope, in a timely manner, a point where we have discussed the major concerns of all of our colleagues, voted on many of them, and then ask for final passage of a bill that is worthy of passage. Each year we have done so. This will begin to set us on a path to conference with the House of Representatives and then a final conference report here.

Once again, I thank the Senator from Oklahoma and concur that we would like to see--and so far, his cooperation and his leadership has engendered cooperation so we can have a series of amendments on the floor.

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I couldn't concur more with the Senator from Oklahoma. We have both, in our careers in the Senate, seen debates on the floor on the NDAA that were very open, that proceeded over the course of several days, and that produced very sound legislation. Then we have seen situations in which, frankly, no amendments could be offered because almost immediately we were in a position of deadlock. The majority leader, Republican or Democratic, filed the final cloture motion and suddenly we were on final passage without amendments.

I think the bill is good. I think there are many important issues we can debate. We might disagree on the outcome of the vote, but that debate and that vote is very critical to the national security of the United States.

So I do, in fact, concur with the Senator from Oklahoma.
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