Chris Coons: “the remarks just concluded by my friend and colleague from Tennessee help make it clear why many of us do not look…”

“the remarks just concluded by my friend and colleague from Tennessee help make it clear why many of us do not look forward to his departure at the end of the upcoming Congress to the better vales of retirement. We are so grateful for the balance and the measured leadership of the Senator from Tennessee. He reminds us of the best of our history and what it is that the Senate has stood for and the role that we play in our constitutional order. I will simply briefly thank him for his remarks. I thank the Presiding Officer for her hard work to make sure this letter was presented to the leaders of both caucuses with 61 signatures. We frankly could have gotten more, but in the press of the work of that day, April 7, 2017, we thought it important to get on the record, in signature, individual Senators saying that we are committed to not change the rules of the Senate on the Senate filibuster rules regarding legislation. I am committed to never voting to change the legislative filibuster. I will simply conclude by saying to my friend, my colleague from Tennessee, that I think there is important work for us to do here to strengthen our role. A number of the retiring Members gave floor speeches in recent days where they talked about the ways in which this body--we do not listen to each other enough, we do not debate each other enough, and we do not work across the aisle enough. If we are to play the role the Founders intended, we must do more of that, not less.…”