mr. inhofe: that's correct. mr. mccain: so we send people into combat, and while we dither around here and we're going to keep the men and women who are serving in harm's way from getting the benefits that they have earned and deserve and are theirs by law, but we're not going to act, at least until january, perhaps, and the list -- and i know the senator from oklahoma has gone on very long about completion of -- of ships, about health programs, about a number of other issues, but i'd like to focus on -- for a minute on one area with my friend from oklahoma. i think all my colleagues are aware and the american people are aware there is a serious issue in the united states military. it is a very serious issue and it is the issue of sexual assaults. it's the issue that the senator from oklahoma has spent untold hours in discussions and debate and learning about this issue because it is a terrible thing that's going on in our military today. so the senator from -- under the leadership, the senator from oklahoma and the

mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, first of all, let me express my appreciation for not just this last monday -- a week ago today -- when we met and put together a negotiated settlement, a negotiated bill, but all year long in the previous year he's been very good to work with. we did our best to get a bill fl we passed our bill out of committee months ago, months ago, and the problem has been -- i am critical of the leadership of the senate and a lot of the people who wanted amendments. i have to say this: on the republican side we agreed finally to cut it down to 25 amendments, which i think is very reasonable, and we were denied that. and i can be critical. it doesn't do any good to be critical right now of the majority because we're where we are. the and we're here now. the chairman has stated that looking at december, it -- mr. president, we only have between now and friday at 11:00. that's it. the house is gone. they've already canadian decision. they've made the announcement and it is going to happen.

mr. inhofe: mr. president, one last comment i want to make. you can listen to us down here and not get the full impact. i carry this with me, the very top person, top military person in the country, the chairman of the joint chief of staffs, general demsey, told us, our committee, that we are putting our military on a path where the force is so degraded and so unready that it would be immoral to use force. that's the number-one guy. the number-two guy, admiral winfield, stated for the first time in my career, instances where we may be asked to respond to a crisis and we will have to say that we cannot. well, we can't correct all that with this bill, but we can sure keep it from getting worse and get back and do what we've done over the last 52 years and pass an n.d.a. bill. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. officer wi

mr. inhofe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: madam president, let me first of all acknowledge that at 11:15 tonight we're going to be voting on the national defense authorization act. this is one -- this is a must-pass bill, it is one that has passed prior to december 31 every year for the last 53 years. so it is very significant that -- and i think people are tired of hearing about it because they recognize the significance and the enact it has to be done now -- and the fact that it has to be done now. i originally came down, madam president, to talk about in my state of oklahoma the problems that we are having with individuals. and i have a long list of people from all throughout the state who have talked about their insurance being canceled, talking about the increase in the deductibles, in the cost of insurance, and about the crisis that we're facing in the state of oklahoma with obamacare. now, since i just found out there are several senators who want to talk about their states, i will merely submit for the record a

mr. inhofe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: let me say, first of all, my good friend from south carolina is a mind reader. he always looks at you and figures out what you're going to say and then he says it better. so let me share -- there are a couple of things during this discussion that haven't been said. i just want to mention that. then i know we're going to go ahead and vote on this. one is that our military was told -- and i talked to several of the groups, the military, the retired groups and others -- that they would be grandfathered in. now, i want everyone grandfathered in, if they're going to do something like this. certainly one installation in my state of oklahoma, we have 13,000 civilian employees, they're going to be grandfathered in. that's the right thing to do because people make career decisions predicated on what they're told at the time. and these military guys -- and i look around the room and most of the senators who are in here have spent a lot of time, as i have, over in afghanistan, iraq, we ta

mr. inhofe: yes. thank you, madam chair. since he was talking about the e.p.a., it's the overregulations there. i happened to be privileged when we were in the majority, i was the chairman of the environmental protection agency. it does a lot of -- chairman of the environment and public works committee. what the senator from kentucky was talking about is all the overregulations that come from that. it's one i'm very sensitive to. that's not why i'm here tonight. in fact, i want to talk a little bit about the nuclear option, about how this has changed things around here and -- and it's -- it's somewhat of a crisis level that we have arrived at. but before i do, i want to share something on obamacare that -- you know, a lot of things have been said on this -- on this floor about the problems with obamacare, and i do want to elaborate a little bit about that in a minute but not right now. i only want to say two months ago, when my good friend from texas, senator cruz, and 11 of us were concerned about trying to do something to

mr. inhofe: let me make a couple of comments here. oddly enough, i agree with everything the senator from arizona said. it's true. and the senator from texas. the process was terrible. and i've been here for, well, i guess on this house committee and this committee for 22 years. and i don't think i've ever seen anything like it. but the effort was there to have a bill early on. i know working very closely with the chairman, i've never had an opportunity to work that close with someone in developing a bill. but we did. i know it was his desire to have a bill. it's still his desire to have a bill. the problem is we went through the thing of the option that everyone finds so offensive and i find so offensive and it's changed the senate and the evidence of that is what happened in this bill. we had people who wanted to have amendments. and so what i did, i went on a thursday, i recall that, to the, a republican lunch. and i went there with 25 amendments, and i said would you all agree to cut your amendment request, which was over 100, dow

mr. inhofe for five minutes. >> thank you. as you stated in your testimony, a maximum -- covering more than a third of the average tuition public four-year institution due to the rising college cost. in light of the diminishing purchasing power the pell grant now the lowest could you discuss the alliance pell recipient on federal student loan? i'm sorry can you repeat that? >> discuss the reliance of pell grants? >> nine out of ten pell grant students since student loans twice the rate of nonpell grant students. as you know, the average student who completes a four year degree does so with 12-7d ,000 in debt. right. we used to have a situation where grants were the base of student financial aid packages and loans supplemental. now we have a situation where loans are the base of financial aid packages and grants are supplemental. that diminishes student's ability to take on certain occupations when they leave. and it has a real impact particularly on students of certain demographic groups when it comes to loan aversion, debt av

inhofe's family. they lost their son parry in a tragic aviation accident on november 10. mr. parry inhofe, i should say dr. parry inhofe, was a highly skilled surgeon associated with central state's orthopedics in tulsa, oklahoma. david long, central state c.e.o., said that dr. inhofe was known as a very caring and compassionate physician. he was the kind of doctor who would make you feel you had his full attention and that your health was the most important thing to him. continuing an inhofe family that dirks parry loved flying with his children and teaching them about flying. mr. bridenstine: from what i understand he was a good pilot. dr. inhofe is survived by his wife, nancy, and two sons, glade and cole. i wish to express condolences to the whole inhofe family. i pray they will be comforted and strengthened by the fact that parry was a believer in the living christ. who said, i am the resurrection and the life. whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for at purpose does --

mr. president, i want to take this opportunity to thank senators levin and inhofe and the committee on armed services for their very hard work on the department of defense authorization bill. unfortunately, i must vote against it, and i want to take this opportunity to explain why i am voting no and to express my very serious concerns about our nation's bloated military budget, particularly in light of the many unmet needs we face as a nation. at a time when the united states has a $17.2 trillion national debt and when we spend almost as much on defense as the rest of the world combined, the time is long overdue for us to take a hard look at the waste, at the cost overruns, at the financial mismanagement that have plagued the department of defense for decades. as a point of comparison, the international institute for strategic studies estimates total global military spending in 2012 at $1.583 trillion. the united states portion of that spending is over 40%, $645 billion. in other words, mr. president, the united states is spending almost as much as the rest of the world combined on defense.

mr. president, i want to pay particular compliment to chairman levin as well as to ranking member inhofe for their leadership which has not -- has not failed the country nor has it failed this body. they got together and produced a bill that came out of our committee in due course after full and open debate on many critical issues with the understanding that we would have the opportunity on the floor of the senate to file amendments, debate those amendments and have up oup-or-down votes. chairman levin has been more than accommodating throughout that process before and after this bill came out of the armed services committee. likewise, senator inhofe has been more than accommodating to make sure that members on this side of the aisle had free and open access to the debate process. they have provided the kind of leadership that we expect. unfortunately, the majority leader has made a decision to cram this down the throats of the senate and that simply from a national security standpoint is not the way this body is designed to work or should work. mr. president, i'll support the passage of