Joe Donnelly: “for more than a month, many of my colleagues and I have come to this floor to talk about our responsibility as Senators…”

“for more than a month, many of my colleagues and I have come to this floor to talk about our responsibility as Senators to do our job and consider the President's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. That is right. Here in one of the world's greatest deliberative bodies, where we have debated war and peace, civil rights, and the right of women to vote, we are now engaged in a debate about whether the Senate should carry out one of its most basic constitutional responsibilities. Even more troubling than the refusal of some Senators to consider the Supreme Court nominee is that this is one in a series of failures over the past year. It is not an isolated incident; it is a pattern. Back home in Indiana, our priorities are clear. We want good jobs and safe communities. Hoosiers are asking important questions of their elected officials, such as: What is the Senate doing to strengthen our economy? What are we doing to keep Americans safe? Today I want to talk about two additional simple things that the Senate can do to strengthen our economy and to keep our country safe. Both have strong bipartisan support already. We just have to do our job. The first relates to the Export-Import Bank.…”