[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S10]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATING THE MAJORITY LEADER

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the majority leader leaves the floor, 
I want to tell him how much I appreciate not only the content of what 
he has stated but the expression that was given. We have a lot of work 
to do.
  As our leader, we Democrats have watched you over these past 6 years, 
and have marveled at the work you have been able to do. I do agree with 
you; the Senate has changed remarkably in its composition. It has 
improved so much with the addition of women. Now 20 percent of our 
conference is made up of women. We are a better Senate for that having 
occurred. We are going to continue to get better.
  I say to the majority leader that we support you. We acknowledge 
there are some things we need to work out. I hope in this tone of 
compromise that the first thing the Republicans will do, during the 
time they are in the minority status, would be to acknowledge that the 
Senate is 50-50, and as a result of that, because most of the work is 
done in committees, we have an arrangement where the committees are 
evenly divided. I know our leader has worked hard to accomplish that. I 
hope that can be done between you and Senator Lott. I hope we will not 
have to have filibusters by the Republicans on a resolution to 
establish what is a fair, equally divided committee structure in the 
Senate.
  I also acknowledge the leader for his statement about what we need to 
do. We have so many things to do: With education, health care, making 
sure that workers are protected, dealing with the difficult problems we 
have with Medicare, and paying down this huge debt that we owe. I hope 
we can keep our eye on the prize and not get burdened with partisan 
squabbling.

  So as one of your loyal lieutenants, I look forward to this next 
Congress and accomplishing things for the people of the State of 
Nevada, the people of South Dakota, the people of Louisiana, and the 
whole country, so that we can walk out of here as proud, when this 
Congress ends, as we are at the beginning of this Congress.
  Again, I congratulate and applaud the majority leader for his 
remarks.

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