[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 185 (Friday, December 18, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S8838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, before I leave the floor, I would 
like to say something about last year. The American people voted for a 
new majority last November. We were humbled to have their support and 
take the Senate in a new direction. The Senate has made great strides 
in the year since. I think we have shown how the Senate can not only 
get back to work, but also return to a place of higher purpose.
  We have committees working again. We opened up the legislative 
process. We gave Senators from both parties more of a say. As a result, 
we have gotten a lot done for the American people.
  There are numbers that help tell the story, such as the fact that 
this Senate allowed 200 rollcall votes compared to just 15 last year. 
But it is the substance of what we passed that truly shows what a new 
and more open Senate can achieve for the American people: replacing No 
Child Left Behind with the most significant K-12 education reform in 
more than a dozen years; addressing crumbling roads and bridges with 
the first long-term Transportation bill in a decade; a balanced budget 
for the first time since 2001; help for our veterans; hope for the 
victims of modern slavery; modernizing changes for our military and its 
acquisition systems; and notable, bipartisan reforms for programs like 
Medicare--reforms that set a precedent for further positive action in 
the future.
  We brought a permanent end to more of Washington's artificial cliffs 
and manufactured dramas by working toward real reform instead of just 
temporary patches, and we will do that again today. We will enact 
permanent tax relief for families and small businesses. We will bring 
an end to a job-destroying, 40-year ban on energy exports. We will 
finally pass landmark cyber security legislation after years of Senate 
inaction. And just last night, we passed the first significant 
environmental reform bill in decades, one that will create more 
certainty for businesses and ensure uniform safety standards for 
products our families use.
  This is all very good news for the American people. Nearly all the 
policies I mentioned were, or will be, signed into law by the 
President.
  Others, while important, do not have his support. That includes 
legislation to rescue the middle class from the pain of ObamaCare, to 
support Keystone's energy jobs, and to protect Kentucky's small 
businesses and coal families from Washington's regulatory assault.
  It is now clear that it will take a new President--a new President--
to achieve those things for the American people. But we are proving 
that you can still get a lot done with a President from a different 
party. We are proving you can actually enact significant, long-term 
reforms, achieve conservative policy goals, and get them signed into 
law.
  I am proud of what the new Senate has accomplished. I wish to thank 
the many friends across the aisle who joined us in passing so many 
bipartisan reforms for the American people. We are not only putting the 
Senate back to work; we are putting it back on the side of the American 
people.

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