Deb Fischer: “In watching the Senate before I arrived and in studying the Senate throughout history, the beauty of this body has been…”

“In watching the Senate before I arrived and in studying the Senate throughout history, the beauty of this body has been the individual rights of every single Senator. With the change we have seen, I believe those rights are diminished, which translates into the people who live in States that are represented by the minority will not be heard in this body. I have been surprised, I have been shocked, and I have been hurt by comments from the majority, where I am referred to as an obstructionist, where my colleagues on this side of the aisle are referred to as extremists, anarchists. I don't even know how to respond to the question of the Senator because nothing could be further from the truth. How I view this body is as one that should have an agenda. We should have Members on the floor participating in debates on bills following an agenda and taking votes, but we don't see that. Instead, we see the two of us and our friend and colleague, the Presiding Officer, speaking to an empty Chamber, speaking to the TV cameras. That is not the way the Senate is supposed to operate. We are supposed to be doing the people's work. I say to the Senator I don't know what we are obstructing, because as a member of the Armed Services Committee, we passed the National Defense Authorization Act out of committee in May. We passed that out of committee in May. We could have taken it up in June. We could have taken it up in July, September, and October.…”