(KNZA)--Accomplishing the business at hand.
That's the goal for United States Senator Jerry Moran as he looks to the approaching start of the 114th Congress on Tuesday.
The Kansas Republican saw his party gain control of the Senate during November's mid-term elections. “ I think that 2015 is going to be different than the first four years I've spent in the United States Senate, and I certainly don't believe I will win every battle I'm interested in succeeding in,” Moran tells MSC News. “For the first time in the time I've been a Senator, I expect the United States Senate to function. We'll actually have legislation that's assigned to a committee, that hearings will occur, people can come testify, votes will be taken, amendments offered. Bills passed out of a committee come to the Senate floor where they will be considered by the Senate. Every Senator will have the opportunity to offer amendments, more votes taken. It's the way the Senate's supposed to operate.”
Moran says he's hopeful that new Senate leadership will put an end to what he says has been inaction under the leadership of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Harry Reid told me shortly after I was sworn into the United States Senate, he explained to me that I just needed to know that we weren't going to do anything, that we weren't going to do anything until after the next election. Whether or not you win every vote, whether or not your position prevails on every issue, the Senate is the place in which we ought to be able to have the discussion, the conversation, the votes. We'll let the American people decide who's right and who's wrong.”
Moran last week came to the local area, stopping in Fairview to hear the concerns of Brown County constituents, in advance of the start of the new session.
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