[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 81 (Friday, June 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S5757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE PROPER DECORUM OF THE SENATE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I think it would be appropriate at this 
moment for me to say that this Presiding Officer, Senator Pat Roberts, 
is one of the best among the Presiding Officers in the Senate today. He 
pays attention to what is going on on the floor. Even though there may 
not be much going on, he is alert to what is happening on the floor.
  This is the premier upper Chamber in the world today. There are 61 
nations in the world that have bicameral legislative bodies today. All 
the others have unicameral legislative bodies. But the U.S. Senate and 
the Italian Senate are the only bicameral legislative bodies in the 
world today in which the upper Chamber is not dominated by the lower 
Chamber.
  It is so important that this Senate be seen as a model, as a Senate 
in which there is decorum and order, a Senate which reveres the Chair 
and respects the Chair. This is one reason why I have been, of late, 
urging the Chair to maintain order in the well of the Senate. Now, 59 
Senators out of 100 Senators today came to this body after I was 
majority leader of the Senate. Almost 60 percent of the Senators here 
today were not Members of this body when I was last majority leader of 
the body.
  Now, what I look upon as some disorder in the Senate is when Senators 
get into the well and mill around. It really looks like the floor of 
the stock exchange, and it does not bring credit upon the Senate. I am 
sure that many senates throughout the States of this Nation look at 
this Senate as the model, look at this Senate as the body from which 
all senates should learn. But I fear that they see just the opposite.
  I have been in the State legislature in my own State, and I have been 
in both houses. I have to say, frankly, that the decorum, the order 
within the House of Delegates in West Virginia and in the West Virginia 
Senate is far more to be desired than we find in that U.S. Senate. This 
is a situation that has really developed only during the last 10 or 12 
years. I am sure that as the 59 out of the 100 Senators who came here 
following my last turn at the wheel as majority leader see this 
disorder in the Senate, where so many Senators gather in the well and 
they talk and they laugh and make a great deal of noise, these newest 
Senators probably believe that is the way it has always been. They may 
believe that is just normal for the Senate. But it is not.
  I cannot imagine Senator Wallace Bennett, Senator George Aiken, 
Senator Norris Cotton, Senator Everett Dirksen, Senator Richard 
Russell, Senator Stuart Symington, Senator John Pastore, or Senator 
Joseph O'Mahoney going into the well. These were the Senators who were 
in this body when I came here. Senators didn't go down into the well 
and mill around in those days. Oh, they walked through the well, or 
they might walk up to the table and ask something about the vote, or 
they might walk up to the Parliamentarian and make some inquiry; but 
they didn't gather in the well and carry on long conversations. They 
sat in their seats. Most of them knew how they were going to vote 
before they came to the floor. They had already been advised by their 
staffs or they studied the legislation. So they didn't go into the 
well. I think that looks bad upon the Senate.

  I don't think the Senate sets a good example when we are so oblivious 
to how the Senate appears to the people who are watching their 
televisions sets or to the people in the galleries. Hundreds of 
thousands of people come to Washington every year, and many of them sit 
in the Senate galleries and watch the Senate. I wonder what is going 
through their minds when they see these Senators come in here and 
gather in the well and carry on loud conversations. How different it is 
when Senators, upon occasion, sit in their seats. How very impressive 
it is when the U.S. Senate acts in accordance with the standing orders 
and rules of the Senate.
  It is the duty of the Chair to maintain order in the Senate and, of 
course, when there is confusion that arises in the galleries, it is the 
duty of the Chair--without being asked from the floor, without a point 
of order being made from the floor--to maintain order and decorum in 
the Senate.
  I am trying to get the Senate to think about this and go back to the 
old ways, wherein Senators voted and then went to their chairs, or they 
voted from their desks. There is a standing order of the Senate that 
requires Senators to vote from their desks. I don't intend to be set-
jawed about it, and if Senators want to walk through the well to see 
what it is we are voting on, or if they want to vote from someplace 
other than their own desks, I have no quarrel with that. But I think 
they ought to sit down. There are plenty of places where Senators can 
converse. We can go to the respective Cloakrooms, or we can walk 
outside the Chamber. So it isn't that Senators are required to avoid 
speaking to one another in the Chamber. We ought to be conscious that 
this Senate is the model--or it should be.
  I hope Senators will read what I have said. They see me insist on the 
well's being cleared and they may think I am trying to run the Senate. 
Of course, I am not. I want people to revere the Senate and respect the 
Senate. If they respect this body, they will have more respect for the 
laws that we enact.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time I have taken not 
be charged against my request thus far.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, again, I thank the Senator from Kansas who 
is a model Presiding Officer, and there are a few others in this body.

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