Heidi Alexander: “I come to the floor to thank the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Maine for this reason: They are following a…”

“I come to the floor to thank the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Maine for this reason: They are following a long and venerable tradition in the United States Senate that too many Senators do not follow. They are allowing--despite their final view on the substance of an issue--the full Senate to make a decision on an important issue. It used to be that a motion to proceed to an issue was routine. It used to be that after a certain period of time, we would cut off the vote so we could have an up-or-down vote, 51, on an important issue. We have gotten away from that, but Senator Collins and Senator Murkowski have been among the most consistent Senators who would say, absent extraordinary circumstances, ``I am going to vote to allow the vote to come to the floor so the full Senate can make its decision,'' and I thank them for that. Madam President, as to Mrs. DeVos, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record, following my remarks, an article about why the Senate should promptly confirm Betsy DeVos as U.S. Education Secretary, which I believe it will do so. Mrs. DeVos will be an excellent Education Secretary. She has commitment to public education. She has said that. There is no better example of that than her work on the most important reform of public schools in the last 30 years, which is charter schools.…”