releases: https://www.sasse.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=AFB1072B-9C49-4EEB-B49D-A379B670BB7F
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.sasse.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=AFB1072B-9C49-4EEB-B49D-A379B670BB7F | OWH: Ben Sasse making debut on Senate floor today offers stinging criticism of state of debate in Congress | 2015-11-03 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Republican | House | NE | Ben Sasse | S001197 | www.sasse.senate.gov | legacy | by Joseph Morton, Omaha World-Herald Sen. Ben Sasse has a stinging critique of the state of debate in the U.S. Senate and plenty of suggestions for how to do it better. The Nebraska Republican makes his debut on the Senate floor this afternoon, a year after Nebraskans elected him and many months after all of his fellow freshmen senators delivered their maiden speeches. Sasse waited this long for his first speech partly out of deference to Senate tradition and partly because he wanted to spend time interviewing his new colleagues about what they believe ails the institution. The Senate floor, he said, has become a sound bite hunting ground, where members trot out dueling sets of partisan talking points for short-term policy advocacy. In private, he said, senators concede that no one ever persuades anyone in floor debate, and that the Senate isnt dealing with the nations long-term problems. "And yet publicly, people seem really content to just drift along acting like: Well, this will probably work itself out," Sasse told The World-Herald. "Nobody believes that." Sasse says he will push the Senate to take a bigger-picture view and will lean on his own background as a historian and a turnaround expert. His speech will highlight three former senators as guideposts for the future: Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, a Democrat who delivered the oft-cited exhortation that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. Before lawmakers can debate the best solutions to the nations problems, Sasse says, they need to agree on the problem itself and the relevant data surrounding it. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, a Republican who showed her willingness to take on her own party when she called out fellow GOP senator Joe McCarthy for his tactics. Sasse wants less tolerance in Senate debate for straw man arguments, even if that means members calling out others from their party. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a Democrat who was devoted to the Senate, its history and its powers. Sasse will call for more focus on the bodys constitutional authority, which he says has been slipping away over the years. One reason he cited for that is a committee structure that has remained largely the same, even as the federal government has grown tremendously in size and scope. "Executive overreach is enabled by legislative underreach, and the Congress has been ceding authorities to the executive branch for decades," Sasse said. "And that process is clearly accelerating with the way rule making works now and the way the Congress has essentially made itself impotent." In short, Sasse doesnt plan to hold back, but will head to the floor and respectfully interrupt colleagues of either party in order to push for more actual debate. Tuesdays speech is an introduction to how Sasse will operate on the floor and he hopes that over time he says hes not under any illusions that this will happen quickly it will help change the way debate on the floor functions so it becomes a place where members actually convince each other once in a while. Sasse says that younger senators are particularly concerned about the need for changes if the Senate is going to deal with the many crises on the horizon, from entitlement spending to terrorism. "The easy thing to do is just to keep playing shirts-and-skins exercises," Sasse said. "Im not going to do that." Read this article at theOmaha World-Herald. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |