Orrin Hatch: “I rise to speak about a subject that troubles me greatly: the state of affairs in this body, the U.S. Senate. I spoke on…”

“I rise to speak about a subject that troubles me greatly: the state of affairs in this body, the U.S. Senate. I spoke on the floor last week about how the Senate has historically lived up to its unique and essential role in our constitutional order. Today, I am compelled to offer an account of this institution as it operates today. I believe this message is important both for the American people, whom we all serve, and for my colleagues in this body. When I spoke on the floor last week, I noted the widespread perception that the Senate has fallen into dysfunction. The pervasiveness of this view is striking among the public, in the media, and even among current and former Senators of all political and ideological stripes. And it is true. The Senate is in worse shape now than ever before in my 38 years of service here. We must properly locate the source of the problem if we are to have any hope of correcting it. Political discourse about the state of the Senate is so often dominated by those who call for the Senate to be more productive, more efficient. To these critics, the Senate's rules are anachronisms, historical accidents, relics of a bygone era that must be swept away for the Senate to race through more legislation and nominations, not the least of which we just heard Senator Grassley speak about. As I laid out on the floor last week, the purpose of the Senate is not to duplicate the work of the majoritarian House of Representatives.…”