McConnell: ‘Time to change the business model’ of the Senate

“It’s time to change the business model” of the Senate, the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor during his first full day as majority leader.

“We need to return to regular order. We need to get committees working again. We need to recommit to a rational, functioning appropriations process. We need to open up — open up — the legislative process in a way that allows more amendments from both sides.”

McConnell said returning the Senate to more regular order, a process in which spending bills are drafted out of committees — not jammed through at the last minute like last month’s $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package — “is the right thing to do and it’s the practical thing to do.”

“It doesn’t mean everything will be perfect. It doesn’t mean we’ll need to come up against a deadline. And it doesn’t mean we’ll always agree,” he said. “But together we can commit to changing the way Washington operates. This can be done.”

But McConnell said “bipartisan reform” can be achieved only “if President Obama is interested in it.”

“The president is the only one who can bring his party on board,” he said. “We’re calling on the president to ignore the voices of reaction and to join us.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., standing in for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is recovering from an accident while exercising on New Year’s Day, responded that Democrats “are committed to the traditions, the precedents, the rules of the United States Senate.”

“I welcome what Sen. McConnell, our new majority leader, has envisioned as a more active floor in the Senate, where we do not run into lengthy and repeated filibusters,” Durbin said.

“Though we hope that our minority status in the Senate is short-lived, I think that we will establish that the Democrats are a much better minority when it comes to the Senate than perhaps those on the other side of the aisle. Only time will tell.”