Bill Lee: “today I am asking my colleagues to support my motion to table the motion to recommit. Now, even for seasoned Senators…”

“today I am asking my colleagues to support my motion to table the motion to recommit. Now, even for seasoned Senators, this sounds like a lot of technical language, and it kind of is; so let's put it in perspective and explain what it actually means. What is really going on here is that we have got the majority leader who has decided to obstruct an open and fair amendment process. The motion to commit, which my motion aims to dispense with, is what Senator Schumer is using to block every Member of this body from accessing the amendment tree and offering up amendments as they please, making them pending, then having them dispensed with. Instead, Leader Schumer is dictating which amendments are allowed to be voted on and which are not. To cut to the chase, essentially, all of them are not. And then he turns around and accuses Republicans of being obstructionists for not wanting to play by his arbitrary rules. Now, some have suggested that too many amendments have been filed, pointing out that among a handful of Republicans, over 80 amendments were filed. This is not a reason to not allow any amendments. Not all of those amendments have sponsors who really want to make sure they want to get voted on. In any event, the way the Senate works, the way it has long worked, the way it still worked to a significant degree when I first got here in 2011 was that we work it out and we allow Members to offer up amendments.…”