On the recordOctober 30, 2019
I am honored to join my colleague who has led this battle for the vision of the For the People Act that will restore the ``we the people'' democratic republic. Here we are on the floor of the Senate. It is an institution that once reverberated with great debates on the great issues our Nation faced--issues of war and peace, of civil rights, of healthcare and housing, of education and infrastructure, and of living-wage jobs; issues of equal opportunity and of environmental pollution; issues that affect the fundamental success of each family in America and our collective success as a nation. Yet, if you are sitting here today and are observing the Senate from the benches up above, you will be hard-pressed to see any of that because those debates are not happening in the U.S. Senate. This Chamber is silent on the great issues that face America. Before he was the majority leader, the majority leader promised that things would be different under his leadership. He said: A Senate majority under my leadership would break sharply from the practices of the Reid era in favor of a far more free-wheeling approach to problem solving. I would work to restore its traditional role as a place where good ideas are generated, debated and voted upon.…





