Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to continue what has become a tradition. At the beginning of the 112th Congress, I took to the Senate floor and called for this body to adopt its rules with a simple majority vote and to amend them so they actually allowed the body to function as our Founders intended. I did the same at the beginning of the 112th, 113th, and 114th Congresses. Today, at the start of the 115th Congress, I again call for reform. This is something I have done as a member of the majority and the minority. Senator Merkley has worked closely with me on this issue and spoke briefly yesterday about our efforts. But we did not start this tradition. It dates back decades. My predecessor, Clinton Anderson, was a leading proponent of what has become known as the ``constitutional option'' in the 1950s and 1960s. Vice President Walter Mondale--then a Senator from Minnesota--carried on the tradition in the 1970s. When Senator Merkley and I first joined the Senate, Senator Tom Harkin worked closely with us to help us carry on the tradition. The proposals we have offered to change the rules at the start of a new Congress have never been radical. They were changes we were willing to live with whether we were in the majority or minority. We have offered the same proposals as Members of the majority and minority. We believe the Senate is broken, and even the minority party should want to fix it.…”