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How do you do? Ladies and gentlemen, this is George Founders, your United States Senator. I wish at this time to welcome you to the first of the series as a weekly television and radio broadcast which I will conduct every week during the session, first session in the 86th Congress, the purpose of these telecasts and broadcast, or to keep you advised of the things that you're going on here and your nation's capital.

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And particularly as these things which go on pertain to our state of Florida. I would like at the outset to also thank the many television and radio stations which carried this program as a public service. I'd like you to know that they get paid no money for it.

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They carry it under the heading of a public service. And I wish from time to time you would express your thanks to them for so doing well. The 86 Congress started off with a bang January the seventh, the usual pomp and ceremony, but a little bit more this time than ever that I had seen before.

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For actually, this was the largest Congress which had ever been sworn in in the history of our country. Alaska had come in as the 49th state in the union. And for the first time, of course, in our history we had two senators from Alaska and in one additional congressman There are a large Democratic.

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There is a large Democratic majority. As all of you know, in the Senate, we have some 64 Democrats. Well, they're only 34 republic in the House, there's a majority for the Democratic Party of some 130. The leadership of both the houses had remained relatively the same, with one exception in the Senate.

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Lyndon Johnson, that outstanding man from Texas, that genius at conciliation in leadership. He was reelected overwhelmingly as our majority leader, and Mike Mansfield from Montana was elected as the whip. Both of them, of course, strategy. Same positions. Last Congress on the Republican side. We had, of course, had changed.

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Bill Nolan, the ex senator now gone from California he ran for the governor, was defeated out there, and Everett Dirksen, from Illinois, was elected as the minority leader as his assistant young fella by the name of Tom Chemical, the senator, junior senator from California. Now the senior.

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Sanitary, however, was elected with the whip over on the House side, Sam Rayburn, of course. 77 years old. He continued to maintain his mastery, and he was once again elected as the speaking the leader of the Democrats, John McCormick, from Massachusetts, as the majority leader. But on the Republican side, we saw an upheaval when Joe Martin, who has come from Massachusetts for some represented Massachusetts in the Congress, were about well close to 40 years and has served as the lead of the Republicans for close to 20.

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He was upended by Charlie Hallock, the very able congressman from Indiana. So we have new leadership in the House. On the Republican side, Charlie House. The first thing that we got involved in is what we expected to, of course, was the rules change that seems as though it will occupy most of all of our time for the next 10 days.

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In this sense, it's a rather complicated matter to discuss here on this briefly on this television and radio broadcast. But in essence, what is involved is just this first, whether or not the Senate is a continuing body, whether or not the rules which are once adopted.

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They continue over from one Congress to another. For my own part, I cannot help but believe that is the case. There's always two thirds of the senators which serve through from one Congress to the next, and it's only logical in my judgment that it should be considered a continuing body with respect to cutting off the debate, which is the principal issue involved.

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The rule now provides that you need two thirds of all those senators chosen and elected in order to bring about an end to debate. Now it is obvious that the great majority of the senators at the present time believe that there should be some change. It's my hope as a Southerner that the change will not be too drastic.

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It's my hope that we will be able to not have any greater change than a change requiring two thirds of those present to cut off the debate. In any event, that's the start of it. Thank you for looking in. I hope that you're looking again at this time next week.

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Thank you. It was all right. It was wasn't sensational, but it was friendly. Mhm, right? That's right. back in the three. The new year. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, We're friendly warning, huh, friend? You want to directly? All right. What, have you heard it?