[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 183 (Wednesday, December 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8711-S8712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WORKING TOGETHER IN THE SENATE

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I wanted to come to the floor and talk 
about what we have been able to accomplish this year because sometimes 
I think people, when they hear us talk, think we are somehow claiming 
credit where credit is not entirely due or whether we are trying to 
make this purely a partisan matter. It is not, but it does require good 
leadership.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, having been speaker of the house in 
North Carolina, the people who set the agenda--that is a pretty 
important power. All of the legislation that has passed this year would 
not have passed if it weren't for the majority leader, Senator 
McConnell, under the new majority scheduling it for a vote in the 
Senate and chairmen in the relevant committees processing that 
legislation at the committee level and making it available for floor 
consideration.
  It is not just the Republican majority. Time after time, we have seen 
Republicans and Democrats working together hand in glove to try to pass 
legislation that is good for the American people. We saw that on the 
Education reform bill, where Senator Murray and Senator Alexander 
worked so closely together. We saw it on the highway bill--the first 
multiyear highway bill in a decade--where the Senator from California, 
Mrs. Boxer, working together with Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma and the 
majority leader, worked to really turn things around in the House of 
Representatives, to give them the space and time to pass a multiyear 
highway bill and to work with us to reconcile the differences and get 
it to the President. That is pretty important.
  I was on the phone earlier today talking with some of the folks at 
the Austin American-Statesman about the impact on the traffic situation 
we have on I-35. It is a veritable parking lot during many times of the 
day. People understand the importance of taking care of infrastructure 
and maintaining it but also expanding it so people can get from point A 
to point B, but more importantly, what that means in terms of the 
environment and their quality of life.
  So my simple point is that there is a big difference to the way this 
Chamber operated under the Democratic leader, when Senator Reid was 
majority leader, back when our friends across the aisle were in the 
majority. The statistic has been mentioned that there were 15 rollcall 
votes on amendments. We have had more than 200 so far this year alone. 
Frankly, I think our Democratic friends like the way the Senate has 
been operating under the current majority more than they did when they 
were in the majority because under the dysfunction of the previous 
majority, even Democrats in the majority weren't able to get votes on 
the amendments. When they stood before the voters, people asked ``What 
have you done?'' and they didn't have much to show except dysfunction.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, whether it is North Carolina or other 
places around the country, we got a number of new Senators as a result 
of that misguided dysfunction, which was calculated but I think proved 
to be a miscalculation.
  It is a good thing to see the Senate operating again in the interests 
of the American people. We have had a pretty busy session. I am not 
claiming it was perfect. Frustrations abound. It is in the nature of 
divided government.
  The legislative process was designed by our Founding Fathers in the 
Constitution to be hard because they actually saw the concentration of 
power as a threat to their freedom and their liberty, and they didn't 
want an efficient Federal Government. They wanted checks and balances. 
They wanted checks between the various branches, between the two 
branches of the legislature, and also checks and balances with regard 
to the allocation of power to the Federal Government relative to the 
States and individuals. All of that separation of power was designed to 
require deliberation and to require transparency and the building of 
consensus before legislation was passed that would have an impact on 
their lives.
  It has been a good thing to see the Senate working again, and I think 
all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, can be proud of some of the 
work we have done.
  One of the things I am most proud of this year is the fact that we 
were able to pass a bill called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking 
Act by 99 to 0. This

[[Page S8712]]

was the first legislation that actually provided a crime victims 
compensation fund to help provide grants to victims of human 
trafficking. As I have described before on this floor, the typical 
profile of a victim of human trafficking is a young girl between the 
ages of 12 and 14. We need to have resources available for people with 
big hearts in communities all across this country to help rescue these 
victims of trafficking and help them recover their lives and get on 
with their lives in a more productive and safe manner. This is one of 
the things we have done together.

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