By Joyce Gramza
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wrvo/local-wrvo-944003.mp3
Oswego, NY – In her first elected term as senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand says she'll pave the way to actually getting things done by pushing to reform the way the Senate does business.
She says she's introducing the reform bills immediately, hoping to set the tone for the 112th Congress and the next two years.
Gillibrand says there's nothing wrong with being allowed to shut down a bill with a filibuster.
The problem, she says, is that the filibuster "has been transformed into a political weapon to paralyze Washington and shut down business."
"For decades, the filibuster was used just two or three times each year," says Gillibrand. "And in the years that Lyndon Johnson served as the Majority Leader in the Senate, he had to file for cloture to end the filibuster only once-- one time in six years. In the last Congress, majority leader Harry Reid was forced to file cloture to end a filibuster 84 times."
She says that's because filibusters no longer mean senators have to speak for hours on end on the senate floor like Jimmy Stewart in the movie classic.
"New Yorkers rightly ask why don't we force senators to speak on the floor in order to filibuster just like we saw in Mr. Smith goes to Washington?'" Gillibrand says.
"The reality is that it doesn't work that way anymore, but it should."
A bill she's co-sponsoring to do just that is already becoming known as the "Mister Smith" bill.
Gillibrand also wants to stop senators from hiding behind what's called an "anonymous hold" which is just what it sounds like-- a secret-- and unexplained, block of a senate action.
She says she's not worried that she could be in the minority two years from now.
"For each one of these rules, we've all thought long and hard about it, and we've all said that we would be happy under these rules whether we're in the majority or the minority," she says.
"And I think that's one of the important litmus tests for each of these reforms, that its not overly burdening the minority, that these are just reforms that are trying to move legislation forward and let legitimate debate take place."
Gillibrand is also pushing for a national earmark database that anyone could easily search on the internet and for ending Congress's privilege of raising its own pay.
"From 1991 to 2009, Congress voted to raise its own pay 15 times, raising its annual salary by a total of $75,600 according to the Congressional Research Service," Gillibrand says.