been purchased by our military allies -- france, england, italy , netherlands, i think maybe australia. there is a whole litany of our allies that are now using r.p.a.'s and general atomics will actually conduct that training at grand forks air force base. it's grand sky technology park at the grand forks air force base. there's no reason why our own air force can't leverage that incredible resource as well or resources like it at other locations, but clearly it's something we need to help leverage our pilot training. so, mr. president, with that, i'll wrap up. again, i want to emphasize the importance of this -p and national defense authorization act. i want to thank both our chairman and the ranking member for their work. euplt to encourage all of my colleagues to join together here in a bipartisan way and pass this important legislation for

our men and women in uniform. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. graham: mr. president, i'd like to be recognized to speak in support of the mccain amendment. the presiding officer: the gentleman is recognized. mr. graham: thank you very much. to the members of the body on both sides of the aisle, i appreciate the effort to produce a bipartisan national defense authorization bill. our committee did a good job, i think, coming up with a bipartisan bill. but as a body and as a country, we haven't done enough, and this is a chance to rectify what i think is an incredibly big problem. we're at war, at least i think we are. we've been at war for the last 15 years. i cannot tell you how hard it's been on the all-volunteer force. i was in the air force for 33

years. i retired last year. i had the pleasure of meeting a lot of men and women in uniform in iraq and afghanistan. i've been to afghanistan and iraq, i think, 37 times in the last decade. and i have seen incredible sacrifice by those who serve our nation to defend us against another 9/11 and what their families have gone through. and here we are as a nation, the congress, what have we done to those that have been fighting this war? we're on track to have the smallest army since 1940. sequestration, our across-the-board budget cuts, have taken almost $1 trillion out of the defense budget, is insanity and nobody seems to give a damn about fixing it.

none of us have to go and fly in planes that are about to fall out of the sky. none of us are commanders of troops who are having to use duct tape to get through the day. none of us have to worry about going over and over and over to the war zone because the war is getting worse, not better. it looks like all of us would listen to our commanders who have said with one voice that the readiness of the united states military is in an emergency situation, that the ability to get the flying hours that our pilots need can't be done because of budget constraints. it looks like we would want to listen to these chief of staff of the army, the air force, the navy and the marine corps, the

commandant, who are telling us that sequestration has taken a toll on the ability to defend this nation. we've had some patchwork solutions. we put some money back. but we're due to go back into sequestration next year. the amount of money that we put back in the ryan-murray compromise was much appreciated. so senator mccain is trying to put an $18 billion infusion into the military to meet their unfunded needs that would plus up the army by 15,000, that would plus up the marine corps, the national guard, that would give more money for operation and maintenance. the problem that seems lost upon this congress is that training hours has to give way to operational needs in theater. let me give you one small

example. there's a readiness rapid response force in spain of marines who are stationed in spain to deal with benghazi-type events throughout africa. they had to fly in case something went bad thousands of miles. they have 12 aircraft. they have two teams, the b-22's. the commandant of the marine corps is having to take six of these aircraft away from spain to bring them back to the united states because we don't have enough airplanes to train the b-22 pilots. that means there's a hole in our ability to protect our citizens and diplomats in africa. i cannot tell you the damage that sequestration has done to our military. and we seem unmoved by all this. i cannot believe that the body is not responding more

aggressively to the needs of our military given the threats we're facing. how much more information do we need from our commanders to believe that this is an emergency? to my democratic colleagues, i know sequestration is hurting on the non-defense side, but all spending is not equal. i stand ready with you to find a way to buy back sequestration, pay for it by having some revenue come from closing loopholes and deductions like the super committee envisioned, some revenue, some entitlement reform to buy back what's left on sequestration. i'm not asking that you just spend money on defense and ignore the rest of the problems associated with sequestration. i've sat down on two separate occasions with members on the other side to try to find ways

to buy back sequestration so that we could actually achieve the savings, and we've been able to not do a whole lot. ryan and murray, they came up with a fix that provided some relief that expires at the end of the year. the bottom line is the mccain amendment is making the argument that the $18 billion in this amendment has to be spent based on an emergency. here's the question. is there an emergency when it comes to the operational needs of this country on the defense side? have we put our troops in a spot where we're risking their lives and their ability to prosecute the war because we've gone too far with defense cuts? i think we have, but if you don't believe me, you should listen to our commanders. and hopefully i can read some of their quotes. so with this $18 billion infusion, we're able to increase

the size of the army. and if you're in the army, you could need a little help about right now. you've been busting your ass for the last 15 years going back and forth, back and forth. and the way we reward your service is to decrease the size of the army. just got back from asia. everybody in asia is wondering what the heck is america doing. we're going to have the smallest navy since 1915. we're going to pivot to asia with what? under sequestration, our ability to modernize the navy has been lost. they don't have the money to build the new ships we need to fight the wars of the future and contain a threatening china because they're in a war now. they're robbing peter to pay paul. it looks like we'd want to help the marines. if you're a marine, boy, have

you be on the tip of the sphere. so this amendment would allow us to have 3,000 more marines. what does that mean? 3,000 more people to help prosecute the war and take a little burden off the marine corps, which has been absolutely worn out. 70% of the f-18's in the marine corps have problems flying. we're canibalizing others to keep planes in the air. 50% of the department of defense budge is personnel cost.

last year we reformed retirement. at 20 years you're not going to get half your base pay in the future. you're going to get 40%. that's going to save money. we're going to allow a thrift savings plan for those who want to contribute 5% of their pay. and we'll match 5%, but they can't get the money until they're at 59 or 60. that will be money for the service members, but it comes later. we're going to ask the military health care system, our retirees to pay more because we haven't had a premium adjustment of any consequence since 1955. we're going to fixed price contracts to deal with the abuse of cost plus contracts to save money. we're trying to reduce the number of general officers because they've exploded. we're doing a lot of things to make the pentagon operate better. but at the end of the day you need people to defend this country. and when sequestration kicks

back in, we're going to go from 4775,000 to -- from 475,000 to 420,000. what i'm asking for is a bipartisan effort to stop the bleeding, to take the request of the military, that's unfunded and desperately needed, and give them a little bit of hope and a little bit of understanding that the congress is listening to their problem, because we're not. we're ignoring the problems of our military because if we were really serious about helping them, we would pass this by a voice vote. but, no, we can't increase defense spending by $18 billion to increase the size of the army, the marine corps, the national guard to give more flight time to our pilots, more

money to maintain the equipment, to increase the size of the national guard which has really suffered during the last 15 years, to buy more airplanes, the bottom line is we can't do all of that because we have to increase non-defense spending. to my democratic colleagues, if you don't think there's an emergency in the military, then you haven't been listening. to those republicans who believe that the appropriations bill is adequately funded the needs of the military, you haven't been listening. well, i've been listening. you know, washington is broken in many ways. i really enjoy being a member of the senate and i respect my colleagues even though we disagree. this one i can't understand. i can't understand this. i can understand ideology.

i can understand the differences pro-life, pro-choice, guns, revenue, taxes. i can understand conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism. i can understand that in a great country we have differences. this i can't understand. i can't understand why any of us would let this happen to our military. whether you're a libertarian, vegetarian, republican, democrat, you need these men and women defending you so you can argue among yourselves. and we can argue to the cows come home about how america should be, and it is a privilege to have this debate. while we're arguing among ourselves about how to make america great again or to become one -- strong together, whatever damn phrase is out there -- the

people who are giving us the privilege to argue are being worn out and underfunded. and let me tell you the consequence of this. at a time the enemy is growing in capability to attack this country, we're gutting our ability to defend this country. a perfect storm is brewing. we've got an america in retreat and in decline all over the world. we've got a presidential contest that is absolutely crazy. the republican nominee when he talks about foreign policy is complete gibberish. the democratic nominee seems to be afraid to articulate how to change things. what is she going to do different? where is she at on sequestration? secretary clinton, do you think now is the time to spend more on the military because we're in an emergency situation? tell me why i'm wrong.

tell me why you don't believe all the things said by those in leadership. i am dumbfounded that this is hard given the state of readiness of our military. i am dumbfounded that we can't improve military readiness without increasing spending for food safety modernization. i am sure there is probably something legitimate there. but the food safety modernization act is not going to stop isil from coming here. $1.9 billion for water infrastructure. i'm sure it's legitimate, but all i can say is that whatever problems we have with water, they pale in comparison to the problems we have with terrorism.

who are we? -- as a body? who are we as a people? if you can't see this being an emergency, if you're not listening and you've shut your mind and advertise what's going on -- and eyes to what's going on, then shame on you. this really is the low point to me. -- that we cannot as a body agree that our mu men and womenn the military are in a bad spot and they need our help yesterday. so vote the way you're going to vote, but don't tell me that the appropriations committee, of which i am a member of, has fixed the problem, because you haven't. you did appropriate more money, and i appreciate it, but the $18 billion on this list is unaddressed by the appropriations committee's effort to do more.

and don't tell me that this is not an emergency, because i don't believe it. and don't hold the men and women hostage from getting the money they desperately need to defend us all, because you want more money somewhere else. whatever differences we have, whatever hopes and dreams we have as individuals or collectively as americans are at risk because the people we're fighting would kill every one of us if they could. they could care less if you're republican, democrat, liberal, or conservative. they want to hurt us, they want to hurt us badly. and the only way to keep them from hurting us is for some of us to go over there in partnership with others over there to keep the fight from

coming back here. looks like all of us could agree on giving the people going over there the best chance they could to survive the fight, come back home, and protect us all. but parntsly we can't get there. -- but apparently we can't get there. shame on us all. i yield. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: i ask unanimous consent that at 7:30 p.m. this evening, the chair lay before the senate the house message accompanying h.r. 2577, that senator mcconnell or his designee be recognized to make a motion, that the senate disagree to the amendment of the house, agree to the request by the house for a conference, and authorize a presiding officer to appoint conferees. further that senator mcconnell or his designee be recognized to offer a motion to invoke cloture on the motion to go to conference and that once a cloture motion is offered, all time be yielded back and the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to go to conference. further, that if the motion to go to conference is agreed to, that senator nelson or his designee be recognized to offer a motion to instruct conferees

and senator sullivan or his designee be recognized to offer a motion to instruct conferees, a understand that the senate vote -- and that the senate vote with no intervening action or debate on the motions to instruct conferees in the order lists and that both motions require 60 affirmative votes for adoption. finally, that there be no further motions to instruct in order and that four minutes be -- that there be four minutes equally divided prior to each vote on the motions to instruct. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i am grateful you didn't make me repeat that. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

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quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that my intern be granted privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: i move that the senate disagree -- the presiding officer: under the previous order, the chair lays before the senate a message from the house of representatives. the clerk: resolved, that the house insist upon its amendment to the senate amendment h.r. 2577 entitled an act making appropriations for the department of transportation and housing and urban development and so forth and for other purposes, and ask a conference with the senate on the disagreeing votes of the two houses thereon. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i move that the senate disagree to the amendment of the house, agree to the request by the house for a conference and authorize the presiding officer to appoint conferees. and i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the

motion to disagree to the house amendment and agree to the request from the house for a conference and authorize the presiding officer to appoint conferees with respect to h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016, and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators as follows. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: and i ask that the mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. under the previous order, all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to disagree to the house amendment and agree to the request from the house for a conference and authorize the

presiding officer to appoint conferees with respect to h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016, and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to disagree to the house amendment to the senate amendment, agree to the request by the house for a conference and authorize the presiding officer to appoint conferees with respect to h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the department of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for fiscal year ending september other purposes shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

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