This Democratic senator has a few ideas to make the Senate better

With half a decade of experience under his belt, Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) shared his ideas Friday for making "the world's greatest deliberative body," the Senate, even better. "To ensure bills are vetted, [require] mandatory hearings on major legislation," he tweeted as one idea. "Sixty-seven vote threshold to waive the requirement."

Schatz also proposed "flesh[ing] out and [formalizing] advice and consent to expedite routine, necessary nominations," "[reasserting] constitution appropriations authority of legislative branch," and eliminating the speed-voting tradition of Vote-a-Rama "to reduce churn, partisan 'gotcha' votes and save time."

Here are a few more:

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Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane noted that Schatz has been in both majority and minority parties during his time on the Hill. "These aren't partisan ideas," Kane said. "Worth a look."