Cord Byrd: “The Senate has not established a rule that is clearly in contradiction to the Constitution of the United States.…”

“The Senate has not established a rule that is clearly in contradiction to the Constitution of the United States. Senators have had the liberty of unlimited debate in the Senate since 1806. In 1806, the rules were codified. Originally, in the Continental Congress, there was the previous question, and the previous question was provided in the original rules of the Senate up until 1806, at which time the rules were codified, and that provision for the previous question, which was to shut off debate, was dropped from the rules, in 1806. So we have had unlimited debate in the Senate a long time. Aaron Burr, in 1805, when he left the Senate after presiding over the impeachment trial of Samuel Chase, urged the Senate to 'discard'--I believe he used the word 'discard'--the previous question. Therefore, for almost 200 years now, the Senate has been without the previous question, which cuts off debate. The Senate is to determine its own rules, and in being the judge of its own rules it elected to dispose, get rid of, the previous question.”