Al Franken: “I rise today to speak about the gridlock in the Senate and the effect it has on our ability to do our jobs as…”

“I rise today to speak about the gridlock in the Senate and the effect it has on our ability to do our jobs as legislators. If you talk to the average person on the street, he or she will probably tell you that Americans are pretty frustrated with their government right now. People think government does not work and that politicians care more about fighting with each other than they do about helping American families. Some days I can hardly blame the people who hold this opinion. We are now in the second year of President Obama's administration and we have only just begun to fill the spots in the executive and judicial branches because of filibusters, holds, and other procedural tactics that have delayed an extraordinary number of people. We had no Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department despite the fact that our country has just experienced arguably the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We have no Assistant Secretary for Legislation at the Department of Health and Human Services.”