David Thomas: “we are faced now with a relatively short period of time to finish our work for this year. We are down to a certain…”

“we are faced now with a relatively short period of time to finish our work for this year. We are down to a certain number of weeks--not very many--to do many things. We have a short time to finish the jobs that need to be finished. So I wish to comment a little on some of the things I have been thinking about in terms of the broader aspect of what our responsibilities are in the Senate. In the Senate, we are faced, of course, with many and varied issues. We have to deal with all kinds of things that happen and all kinds of issues that are brought up which are very legitimate. I guess this is my point: Our job is also to define the kinds of issues that are appropriate to be handled in the Senate, to be handled in the Congress, to be a part of the Federal activity. Sometimes I think we find ourselves having all kinds of issues come up in this Chamber which one could question as to whether this is the role of the Federal Government. Of course, our basic decisionmaking comes from the Constitution. But the Constitution is obviously fairly broad in its terms, so there is always a different kind of feeling, a different definition for what are the appropriate roles, the appropriate issues in which the Federal Government should be involved. I guess I am sometimes reminded that the Federal Government is only one of the functions that we have in this country to carry out the leadership and the activities for our country.”