state and the good of the country, and little did i know when i got to the senate that a year later, that bridge would collapse in the middle of the summer day, and basically an eight lane highway and i said that day, a bridge should not fall down in the middle of america. it did, and we decided we would rebuild that bridge and then senator coleman and i worked -- worked together and were able to get that money and it was rebuilt in a year. people lost their lives and many others were injured, but it was a reminder of what your job is when you represent an area. or that will girl that died in the swimming pool. she sat on a train that was defective and was basically dismembered but lives -- but lived for months. i got to meet her and her family and when she passed away, her dad said the one thing he wanted to get done was this poll safety bill -- this pool safety bill. we were able to attach it to the safer bill and make pools , going forward, there has been much less death from this kind of faulty equipment. that moment when i got to call him from the courtroom and tell him we passed the bill was probably the proudest moment that i had. >> you know congress and its approval ratings are pretty low. some said it is broken. how do you view the senate or congress, and can you have working relationships across the aisle? >> i hold hubert humphrey's seat and desk. when i first asked for it, they mistakenly gave me gordon humphrey's desk. and for two years i had that desk. i told a senate or the story and they asked how do you know and i said let me find his name and i opened up the lid and i did not know that in the new congress, the corrected the error and i have hubert humphrey's desk. as i think about him, he lived -- he went through it all with optimism and believed you could get things done and believed in this idea of democracy, and that is what guides me. i have found the best in my colleagues. i headed up the national prayer breakfast and in part of that group -- i work with the women senators across the aisle and nearly two thirds of my bills, -- i have tried to find that common ground, whether it is passing a on adoption, whether it is making sure that our products are safe from from aldehyde -- from formaldehyde. pushing immigration, and terms of bringing in some of our skilled workers. the two senators least likely to get into a scandal. the point is that i try to find that common ground on an issue and an understanding of the person, and go from there. it has helped me to get things done for my state, and feel good about the work that we do every day, and it gives you some hope which we have now seen. i would argue. it has -- -- john mccain, working with senator mccain and senator , orin and senator menendez whether it was when patty murray and barbara mikulski worked with congressman ryan and others to get that budget done for the work on the farm bill that senators have announced has just done recently. it is just an incredible story and despite everything, all the fights and the shout fests and the people standing in the corner of the boxing ring and people find it within themselves to stand next to someone they don't always agree with the betterment of this country, and that is what keeps me inspired and keeps me going. >> in your lobby, there is a picture of senator humphrey. did you meet them? >> when i was young because my dad covered hubert humphrey, i i metle to meet him and mary later, and their family and their son and others. there is one thing that people do not realize it hubert humphrey in addition to him being passionate and a leader on civil rights. there is a movie out on him, which shows how much he did work cross the aisle and that his effervescent manner and the way he dealt with people really transcended party lines. in that way, he is a big role model for me. >> do you enjoy being in the senate? >> i do, and i think it is a place that needs improvement. we should not be wasting our of debate, not on an amendment, but on a person. we should have up or down votes more often, and we should move things along, and that would make people feel a lot better about themselves and we would certainly be serving a democracy better. when the president talked in the state of the union about the soldier and how it is not easy. the soldier was in a coma after sustaining a roadside bomb attack and getting to the point where he could be sitting to the -- sitting next to the first lady at the state of the union, was a message to everyone. never been easy and our democracy has never been easy, and it was certainly a message to congress. >> another issue you have been working on, equal pay for equal work, why is that even an issue? >> we still have situations when you look back in the past where women just are not treated the same way. -- told you do not get a raise because you did not find out what other people were making, you don't get to have equal pay. we fix that, so this idea -- this idea that women should be paid the same for work that a man does is something that i have become -- most republicans stood up for when the president talked about not living in a mad men discriminatory situation, one of the most surprising points from that state of the union speech. i also think that the cloud of the women -- the count of the women in the senate is changing things. it is not just the numbers. it is the jobs that they have. we now have eight major chairs from the budget committee to appropriations to intelligence, to transportation. major committees are chaired by women. i am the senate chair on the joint economic committee and it means you can hold hearings on whether there is income inequality in the immigration bill or women in manufacturing, and it changes things and because of it, i get to go to the chairman's lunch and i get to see firsthand, when you look at who is in charge of those committees, the number of women -- the percentage of women is higher than the percentage of women in the senate, overall. i think that is one of the best things for changing the way things work around here. susan collins led the effort to end the shutdown and we had a group of 14 of us, half were women and we said here is how we think we should end this. we went to our leaders and said we are going to do a press conference and you guys can work it out if you want to, but this is what we are going to do. i do not think it was a coincidence that half of them were women. i would say i am someone that stands up for the people in my state. i am someone that believes we need more stability in washington, and if i had to pick one word, i would say it is optimistic for the future and optimistic for what we can get done. >> this comes in the category of what's next, some would say you would be perfect for the supreme court, any interest? >> i love the job that i do now. -- our voters like to see change and we really have not had people that have stayed in the senate for very long. you have to go back to humphrey, so that means a lot to me for a state and they also have a lot of work i still want to do here. >> how about the presidency? >> i love the job i have right now and it looks like hillary clinton may be running on our side. i'm not making any news. >> when the new york times says you are among a dozen or so people that could potentially be president someday, what is your reaction to mark >> it is an honor to have people think of you that way, but i learned you have to keep your eye on what you are doing, and enjoy what you are doing and be humble about what you are doing. when i first considered running for office in minnesota, a lot of people said i should run for secretary of state, which is important, especially -- not -- for a jobe me to run that has traditionally been run by the -- by a woman. i said i want to do the job that i want to do for now, that i see is challenging, and that is what i did. people for eight years and this other opportunity came up, so it is important that while you are doing your job, you like what you are doing and you keep focusing on it and people that you spend their entire time looking for the next step, looking for the next climb they can make, to a different hell, they always find out the grass is not always greener and they don't enjoy or do well what they are doing.