one of those moments. What is before us today is a test, a test of whether the Senate still understands

what it's for. A test of whether Article 1 of the Constitution still means what it says

that Congress possesses the power to write the rules of the road. A test of whether this body still exists

to defend the American people, strengthen the republic, and use constitutional authority for the

common good. That is why I rise in support of my substitute amendment to the Save America Act.

And it comes before us at a fitting hour in our nation's life.

America is approaching her 250th birthday. We're taught in schools to think of the American founding

as though it were unimaginably far away, sealed off behind glass. But 250 years is smaller than it seems.

President John Tyler was born during the first Congress in 1790.

He was born in the very infancy of this republic.

President Tyler's last living grandson died only last year.

That is how near the founding still is, and how recent this great

experiment in self-government remains. And if the founding is that near, then our duty is that much clearer.

We're not the curators of a dead tradition. We are the stewards of a living republic. Our republic was founded on a daring claim

that free people could govern itself.

Not that a free people could drift forever.

Not that a free people could live off inherited greatness

while its leaders refuse every hard question. Not that a free people could live off inherited greatness while its leaders refuse every hard question.

Not that a free people could dissolve every boundary, mock every limit, and still expect to remain free.

No, the American founding rested on a harder truth.

Liberty is fragile, and so it requires structure. Man has fallen, and so self-government

requires virtue. A republic requires citizens, truth, and the courage to defend both. That's why

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