Heidi Alexander: “One of the things that has disappeared that I saw in the first years I was here in the Senate is the two leaders sitting…”

“One of the things that has disappeared that I saw in the first years I was here in the Senate is the two leaders sitting down and perhaps coming to informal agreements that are then put into unanimous consent agreements to move forward. The other aspect of this I wonder if my colleagues would care to comment on. One of the reasons why we have these--the majority leader comes forward, as I believe he has 40 times, brings up a bill and then immediately fills up the tree--and to the uninitiated, obviously that means there will be no other amendments allowed through that kind of parliamentary procedure. A lot of times that is read by the Members saying, hey, there is going to be an amendment up that I do not want to have to vote on. I do not want to have to vote on it. So fill up the tree, have no other amendments allowed to be voted on. It seems to me that we should have the courage to go ahead and vote. Time after time, when I have seen basically a shutout from amendments, I have said, look, I will agree to a time agreement. I am not going to filibuster it. Just give us 15 minutes either side and vote on it. But they do not want to take tough votes.”