Ben Sasse: “I thank Chairman Grassley for that question and the invitation to join him in the colloquy. As two of the only non…”

“I thank Chairman Grassley for that question and the invitation to join him in the colloquy. As two of the only non- attorneys on the Judiciary Committee, it is important that we, on behalf of the majority of Americans, who are non-lawyers, do reclaim the separation of powers as a basic American inheritance. So I thank the Senator for the chance to discuss it here today. Starting the morning after President Trump's victory last November, there has actually been something of a renaissance of separation of powers talk among many folks around this body, and that is a good thing. After 8 years of legislative atrophy, many on the other side of the aisle are now remembering the old ``Schoolhouse Rock'' distinction among the three separate and coequal branches, and this is good news for Americans' civic health. If Democrats are serious--frankly, if all of us are serious, for we in this body have taken an oath not to a political party but to a constitutional structure of limits where power is intentionally separated and divided because our forefathers and foremothers were skeptical of the consolidation of power--if we take this seriously and we would like to reclaim some of the Congress's responsibility and ability and authority to check and balance the other two branches, the debate around Judge Gorsuch's nomination and the hearings we will have beginning in the chairman's committee next month are a great place to start.…”