Frank Lautenberg: “people across this country are feeling pressures from so many points of view--job loss, threatened losses in the future…”

“people across this country are feeling pressures from so many points of view--job loss, threatened losses in the future as pressure exists on businesses, particularly small businesses across our country. They look to us in the Senate and in the House to help them solve their problems, but what they have seen has resulted in an attitude, to a certain degree, of disdain about those of us who serve in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The reason it has developed that way is because they think we are not doing our job. If they watch television or listen to what is going on, it further confirms the fact they have in mind that we are not doing our jobs; that we are wasting time; that we are not paying attention to the country's needs. That kind of a picture is appropriately formed, with the situation as it is. The Senate has been a roadblock to progress in our country. I salute my colleagues, Senators Udall of New Mexico and Merkley of Oregon, for the work they are doing, and the others who are associated with it, and I commend the Senator from Tennessee on the other side for his willingness, for his interest in establishing a consensus of view about how we can improve the functioning of our body. I salute him and commend him for it, and I have mentioned that to him privately. We have all been wrestling with this problem. But finally, I think we are coming to a time when we can solve it.”