[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 9, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S598-S599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Floor Votes

  Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, I want to start by thanking my friend 
from the great State of New Hampshire for signing on to a letter I just 
want to briefly describe and send the letter to the desk.
  I send a letter to the desk which has been signed by seven Members of 
this body, and we expect several more to be added over the next day, if 
not this evening.
  Ladies and gentlemen, it is pretty simple. I was thinking that my mom 
is one of the few people who probably watches C-SPAN a lot when her son 
is on the floor. We have so many instances where we have 90 or so 
Members standing on the floor, looking at a door to the left or the 
right or the rear, wondering where that last Senator is who is holding 
the vote open.
  So, Mom, when I am on the floor and looking that way, it is because 
we have a Member who may be coming to vote or maybe not.
  What we have here is a situation where any one Member is able to hold 
the vote open. Out of respect for that Member--technically, the vote 
could be called after the time is called, but it is not out of respect 
for our Members.
  So what I have simply done is circulate with my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle and say: How about this as a proposition: If you are 
the last Member to vote and your vote will not change the outcome, then 
instruct the desk and the Presiding Officer to simply call the vote.
  We had nearly 80 Members already agree that is a reasonable 
proposition, and every one of those Members has an opportunity on an 
exception basis to say: No, this vote is important to me; you have to 
hold it open.
  They could be caught in traffic. They could be coming from the 
airport--any number of valid reasons.
  There was a vote on this this afternoon, and the reason I missed that 
vote was I am a ranking member of a subcommittee, and the witnesses 
were just about to testify. I could have held the vote open or I could 
have been rude to the witnesses and left when they prepared the 
testimony. I felt like it was more important to hear their testimony. 
That vote, by the way, passed by a huge margin. That is an example 
where I am perfectly happy to show respect to my colleagues, not hold 
the vote open, and move on.
  Tonight, we are going to have several votes stacked up, and 
invariably, we may have someone come in--I don't think it is malicious, 
but they are unintentionally holding up the proceedings of this body. I 
think if we simply have them, their scheduler, their chief of staff, or 
anyone in their office simply say ``The boss has to vote on this 
bill,'' then they could call the cloakroom, and the vote could be held 
open, which is a tradition here.
  I want to thank Senator Shaheen, the Presiding Officer. I want to 
thank the 77 people who have signed on to this letter just to show that 
we want to do the work of the people, we want to do it in a timely 
manner, and we want

[[Page S599]]

to show the utmost respect to the Members and to the staff who are also 
held up for sometimes no good reason.
  So this is a good step forward. It is a baby step. It is not a sea 
change. But I think we can change the behavior of the Senate by being 
mindful of how our actions can affect the proceedings on the floor and 
every one of our calendars.
  So, again, Madam President, I send that letter to the desk. I have 
shared a copy of the letter with both cloakrooms. I will be sending a 
letter to Senator Schumer, who I understand will gladly accept it.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have the letter printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                 Washington, DC, February 2, 2022.
     Hon. Charles E. Schumer,
     Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
     Hon. Mitch McConnell,
     Minority Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell: 
     As you know, despite our collective efforts to encourage 
     Members to vote on the Senate floor in a timely manner, votes 
     are often left open well beyond the allotted time, 
     frustrating a majority of Members from both sides of the 
     aisle. Often, the outcome of the vote is not in doubt.
       With this in mind and in order to expedite floor votes, we 
     are instructing the Presiding Officer to close any vote in 
     which: (a) one of the signatories below is the last remaining 
     vote; and (b) the Member's vote would not change the outcome. 
     However, on any particular vote, if a signatory requests that 
     the vote be held open, they may do so by providing notice to 
     their Cloakroom.
           Sincerely,
         Thom Tillis, Angus S. King, Jr., Christopher A. Coons, 
           Roy Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito, Patrick J. Leahy, 
           Kyrsten Sinema, Jon Tester, Ron Johnson, Amy Klobuchar, 
           Jon Ossoff, John Barrasso, Patty Murray, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Rick Scott.
         Mark R. Warner, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Rob Portman, Mike 
           Rounds, James Lankford, Joni Ernst, Cynthia M. Lummis, 
           Mike Crapo, Bill Hagerty, Richard Burr, Dan Sullivan, 
           Debbie Stabenow, Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran, James E. 
           Risch.
         Tommy Tuberville, Tim Kaine, Lisa Murkowski, John W. 
           Hickenlooper, Richard J. Durbin, Robert P. Casey, Jr., 
           Ben Sasse, Benjamin Cardin, Tammy Duckworth, Margaret 
           Wood Hassan, Jack Reed, Roger F. Wicker.
         Todd Young, John Boozman, Chris Van Hollen, Michael F. 
           Bennet, Martin Heinrich, Robert Menendez, Richard 
           Blumenthal, Brian Schatz, Patrick J. Toomey, Lindsey 
           Graham, Steve Daines, John Hoeven, Gary C. Peters, Jeff 
           Merkley.
         Rand Paul, Bernard Sanders, James M. Inhofe, Alex 
           Padilla, Christopher Murphy, Tina Smith, Cynthia Hyde-
           Smith, Mike Braun, Jeanne Shaheen, Deb Fischer, John 
           Kennedy, Marco Rubio.
         Mitt Romney, Joe Manchin, III, Sherrod Brown, Bill 
           Cassidy, John Cornyn, John Thune, Mark Kelly, Cory A. 
           Booker, Kevin Cramer.

  Mr. TILLIS. Thank you, Madam President. I look forward to seeing it 
work in action.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The Senator from Illinois.