[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.