The United States Senate did something rare this week: It held an actual debate.

Wednesdays floor proceedings focused on voting rights legislation and the Senate filibuster, and involved nearly every member in the chamber.

Senators sat in their seats, listening intently to colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Many even engaged directly with each other, offering responses to points made on the floor.

It was an unusual sight in whats often called the worlds greatest deliberative body, a widely mocked cliche in the modern Senate, even among senators themselves.

Even though no votes were changed in the end and the legislation failed to pass due to a GOP filibuster, senators enjoyed what seemed like a fleeting moment to deliberate an issue that had, as of Wednesday, yet to receive its due on the floor.

That was the most substantive back and forth I have seen in my 13 years in the Senate, remarked Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) after an extended exchange between Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) over the failure to reauthorize parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.