Amending the Standing Rules and Procedure of the Senate--S. RES. 8, S. RES. 10, S. RES. 21, S. RES. 28, AND S. RES. 29--Continued

Floor Speech

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: The checks and balances which have been at the core of this Republic are about to be evaporated. The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote, you don't get your way 100% of the time.

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I am the last speaker after this very good debate, which was preceded by months and months of serious discussion. I think every one of us is better for going through this process. We understand the Senate better. We have deeper feelings about this hallowed institution, about what it has done, what it can do, and what is wrong with it as well. I think every one of us agrees that the Senate needed to be fixed, and we also agree that we did a lot last year, despite the fact that it was broken. We had different paths to fix it, but fix it we must and fix it we will.

I will say this: Obviously, there are going to be some rules changes and some statutory changes. But a lot of what will make this work is the agreement--informal but serious--between Senators REID and McConnell, which Senator Alexander and I were part of. I say to my colleagues, hopefully, we are opening up a bit of a new era, where bills are allowed to come to the floor, except under extraordinary circumstances, where amendments are allowed to be added to those bills, except under extraordinary circumstances, and there is vigorous debate.

I ask my colleagues to forbear--it is easy for any Senator to stand up and bollix up the whole works. The spirit of the new agreement says think twice, or maybe three times, before you do, because that was the path that led us to the dysfunction.

I, too, want to salute my colleagues, Senators HARKIN, UDALL, and MERKLEY for the great job they did. Senator Wyden and Senator McCaskill and Senator Grassley will have a dream of theirs enacted into the rules momentarily. This has been a fine debate. I don't think the talking filibuster cuts against anything my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said. I am going to proudly vote for that provision, and maybe--miracle of miracles--it will get two-thirds. But at least there will be a vote, and maybe we can work toward that in the future.

I also do believe that the proposal to not invoke the constitutional option for this Congress and next Congress gives us some time to figure all this out, without closing the door on it forever, because some on our side, I know, were worried about that.

Let us go forward in the spirit of comity that we have seen since the lameduck session. Let us go forward in a bipartisan way that we have worked on these rules changes and move forward in the next few months and try to legislate in the way many of us who have been here longer than a few years used to love, enjoy, and relish. If we can bring those times back, the Senate will be a better place for every one of us, no matter our party or ideology.

I thank all of my colleagues, including my colleague from Tennessee and the two leaders, who stepped to the plate, and the so-called young turks, some of whom have been here much longer than I have been, for importuning us to act.

I yield the floor.

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