The Senate is broken, but Mike Lee’s reforms can repair it

Nobody knows who will be the next majority leader of the Senate, but there is more than a 50 percent chance it is going to be a Republican.

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and others are pushing for the job. Unfortunately, there are already signs that leadership will not want to implement any of the reforms recently proposed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The Senate is broken and in need of change. Republicans should lead that change and implement the Lee reforms.

Lee sent a letter to colleagues earlier this month in which he argued that the decision to choose a new Republican leader “is about setting the course for the Senate’s role in our nation’s future.” He suggested several reforms to “strengthen the Senate, empower individual members, and ensure that the voices of the American people are heard once more.” If the Senate continues down a path where senators lack the power to offer amendments and engage in extended debate, it will continue to be mistrusted and disliked by a large majority of Americans.

The first reform Lee proposed was to end the practice known as "filling the tree," a which Senate........

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