Amy Klobuchar: “today I rise to discuss the importance of upholding the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent…”

“today I rise to discuss the importance of upholding the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent on nominations. Many people refer to the Senate as the world's greatest deliberative body because the Senate is designed for the careful consideration and debate of proposed laws and nominations. That is why we have so many people sitting up in the Gallery today, because they are here to hear debate. How we deliberate is governed, of course, by a set of Senate rules. I am sure some of them seem archaic when our visitors hear about quorum calls being vitiated, but it is very important to have rules because rules stay in place no matter who is in charge and no matter what matter is before us. Rules create a sense of decorum and fairness not only in this Chamber but for our country. Only once in the history of the cloture process in the U.S. Senate has the Senate voted to permanently reduce the time we have to debate an issue. That happened in 1986, when we went from 100 hours of something that is called postcloture debate time to the current rule of 30 hours. That basically means there are 30 hours to debate something really important, such as the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice, an ambassador, or who is going to be a Cabinet member. That is the way the rules are now. While there have been contemporary changes to the rules, we have not seen a permanent rule change since 1986.…”