Cord Byrd: “The system is not operating as it was intended to operate. We are improvising it as we go along. We are changing it all…”

“The system is not operating as it was intended to operate. We are improvising it as we go along. We are changing it all the time. The Senate is changing. And I regret to say that. I simply want to thank the Senator for using the charts. They are very persuasive. They tell the story. They tell it concisely. I also thank the Senator for standing up for the Senate and the true system. The Appropriations Committee was created in 1867. So for 133 years we have had this system. The Appropriations Committee was very small in the beginning. I think it was made up of only five members. The system is being changed by Senators who have come here, most of them, from the other body. They don't know how the Senate is supposed to work. They never saw it operate under the rules. It is being run mostly by unanimous consent now, not by the rules. For example, we never have calendar Mondays here anymore. We ought to try that just once in a while to keep the system--the real system--alive. I thank the Senator for his timely comments.”