112th Congress should work together to create jobs and help middle-class families (Sen. Harry Reid)

But our fundamental responsibilities and traditions anchor
us in that river. Our respect and reverence for the people we serve and this
institution never wavers or changes.

According to academics, pundits, and congress-watchers,
the 111th Congress, the last Congress, was the most productive in American
history. But many challenges and opportunities still lie before the new
Congress that starts today. We have to do even more to help middle-class
families, to create jobs, to hasten our energy independence, to improve our
children’s education and to fix our broken immigration system.

We also have to make sure the Senate can operate in a way
that allows the people’s elected legislators to legislate. So we will soon
debate some reforms to Senate procedure – reforms proposed not for the sake of
change itself, or for partisan gain, but because the current system has been
abused, and abused gratuitously. The filibuster in particular has been abused
in truly unprecedented fashion.

There are strong passions on both sides of this debate.
There are nearly as many opinions about what to do about these abuses as there
are senators. But let us start the conversation with some facts:

There were about as many filibusters in the last two
Congresses as there were in the first six-and-a-half decades that the cloture
rules existed.

There were nearly as many filibusters in just the last two
years as there were in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and half of the
1970s combined.

In the entire 19th century, the Senate saw fewer than a
dozen filibusters. Now we see that many in a month.

Many of those recent filibusters were terribly
unproductive. Many of them prevented us from even holding a debate on a bill,
let alone an up-or-down vote. And after we wasted hour after hour and day after
day, many of those bills passed and many of those nominees were confirmed
overwhelmingly or unanimously.

I have been forced to use my right as majority leader to
fill the amendment tree more than I would have liked to for a simple reason: Rather
than offer amendments to improve legislation or compromise for the greater good
– as members of this body have done for generations – the current minority has
offered amendments simply to waste time, to delay us from proceeding to a bill
or to score political points.

Finally, these rules are central to the Senate, but they
are not sacrosanct. Senate procedure and cloture rules have changed since this
institution was founded, when necessary and after serious consideration. Those
decisions have never been made without great deliberation, and no future
changes should be made any differently.

The recent abuses we’ve seen have hurt the Senate and they
hurt the country. They hurt our economic recovery and they hurt middle-class
families. They hurt the institutions that lead and shape America because they
keep public servants and judges from their posts for no reason other than mere
partisanship.

Even Chief Justice Roberts criticized the Senate a few
days ago for how few judges we confirm, and how slowly we do so. His criticism
and concern are well founded. I hope all my colleagues consider the Chief
Justice’s warning and what it means for the pursuit of justice in this country.

This is the bottom line: We may not agree yet on how to
fix the problem – but no one can credibly claim problems don’t exist. No one
who has watched this body operate since the current minority took office can
say it functions just fine. That would be dishonest. No one can deny that the
filibuster has been used for purely political reasons – reasons far beyond
those for which this protection was invented and intended.

So in the coming days, let’s come together to find a
solution. That’s why we’re here. United States senators must solve problems,
not create them.

The last time Congress convened without Robert Byrd as a member,
Harry Truman was president. Forty-two of our 100 Senators hadn’t even been born
yet.

No one knew the Constitution better than Robert Byrd, and
no one revered it more. He taught many of us many things. Among them, he taught
me to carry the Constitution with me every day. I do. I always have this copy
of our founding document in my pocket, signed by Senator Byrd, one of its most
fervent defenders.

He loved the Constitution not just because of what is
written there, but how those words were written – how it all came together. He
knew that our Constitution was created through compromise. At a moment of
particular partisan strife 15 years ago, Senator Byrd came to this floor and
said the following:

“I hope that we will all take a look at ourselves on both
sides of this aisle and understand also that we must work together in harmony
and with mutual respect for one another. This very charter of government under
which we live was created in a spirit of compromise and mutual concession. And
it is only in that spirit that a continuance of this charter of government can
be prolonged and sustained.”

Our friends in the House have decided to begin their daily
business by reading the Constitution. In these first few minutes of the new
Senate session, I think we should reflect on Senator Byrd’s wise reminder of
its history.

And like the Constitution, the agreement that established
two separate and different houses in the legislative branch was itself a
compromise. As much as ever before, our two branches need to find common ground
if we are going to be productive for the people we serve together.

In that same speech 15 years ago, Senator Byrd reminded us
that “the welfare of the country is more dear than the mere victory of party.”
I think we would do well to heed those words as we debate and decide how to
best serve the nation and its people in this new year.

Senators come and go, majorities and minorities rotate
like a rolling wheel, and records of service are written and rewritten. The
only constant in our democracy is change. Sixteen senators who were here just
weeks ago have moved on, and 16 new ones now take their seats. Laws that
governed this nation and rules that govern this body continue to evolve
carefully and by necessity.

The most important change we can make in the 112th
Congress is to work better and more closely as teammates, not as opponents – as
partners, not as partisans – to fulfill our Constitutional responsibility to
pursue a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.