[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 117]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CHANGING SENATE RULES

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, today I wish to continue what has become a 
tradition. At the beginning of the 112th Congress, I took to the Senate 
floor and called for this body to adopt its rules with a simple 
majority vote and to amend them so they actually allowed the body to 
function as our Founders intended.
  I did the same at the beginning of the 112th, 113th, and 114th 
Congresses. Today, at the start of the 115th Congress, I again call for 
reform. This is something I have done as a member of the majority and 
the minority. Senator Merkley has worked closely with me on this issue 
and spoke briefly yesterday about our efforts.
  But we did not start this tradition. It dates back decades. My 
predecessor, Clinton Anderson, was a leading proponent of what has 
become known as the ``constitutional option'' in the 1950s and 1960s. 
Vice President Walter Mondale--then a Senator from Minnesota--carried 
on the tradition in the 1970s. When Senator Merkley and I first joined 
the Senate, Senator Tom Harkin worked closely with us to help us carry 
on the tradition.
  The proposals we have offered to change the rules at the start of a 
new Congress have never been radical. They were changes we were willing 
to live with whether we were in the majority or minority. We have 
offered the same proposals as Members of the majority and minority. We 
believe the Senate is broken, and even the minority party should want 
to fix it.
  Congress had made some progress in recent years, but unfortunately, 
it took unprecedented Republican obstruction to bring it about. 
Republicans blocked nominees to all sorts of positions submitted by 
President Obama, so we took action to change the rules to break through 
the gridlock. It was unfortunate that Republicans precipitated that 
situation, but the result was for the best.
  New rules allow for a lower cloture threshold for all nominees except 
those to the Supreme Court now, and the new Republican President can 
take advantage of them, just as President Obama was able to do for the 
final years of his term.
  But no one would argue that Congress or the nomination process has 
been fixed. Further debate and reform is needed on many aspects of 
Senate function.
  We believe the Senate should openly debate and consider its rules at 
the start of each Congress, to consider changes that can provide 
commonsense reforms. This ongoing process is the ideal way to restore 
the best traditions of the Senate and allow it to conduct the business 
that the American people expect.
  We have one goal whether we are in the majority or in the minority: 
to give the American people the government they expect and deserve--a 
government that works.
  This is not just about rules. It is about the norms and traditions of 
the Senate.
  Neither side is 100 percent pure. Both sides have used the rules for 
obstruction. No doubt they had their reasons.
  But I don't think the American people care about that. They don't 
want a history lesson or a lesson in parliamentary procedure. They want 
a government that is fair, that is reasonable, and that works.
  I hope that all my colleagues--and especially the new Senators--give 
serious consideration to reform.
  We do not need to win every legislative or nomination vote. But we 
need to have a real debate and an open process to ensure we are 
actually the greatest deliberative body in the world.

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