[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S701-S702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                The Cabinet and Congressional Review Act

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I sat here and listened with interest to 
the majority leader's comments about this strategy of obstruction and 
slow walking the President's Cabinet. I share his frustration. More 
than that, on behalf of the people we were sent here to represent--the 
American people--I regret that petty politics has gotten in the way of 
the ability of our colleagues across the aisle to get over the fact 
that the election didn't turn out quite the way they hoped and to get 
back to work on behalf of the American people.
  This week we will continue to grind our way through consideration of 
President Trump's nominees, despite the best efforts of our friends 
across the aisle to obstruct and to slow walk. Because of their 
insistence on taking advantage of every possible procedural delay, they 
have tried to grind the Senate to a near halt, but we have overcome 
that obstruction. We came together early Friday morning and voted to 
move forward with the President's nominee for Education Secretary--
about 6:30 in the morning. It was a little earlier than we usually 
convene, but I am glad we were able to get it done.
  I am confident that we will get Mrs. DeVos confirmed soon. Then, 
thanks to former Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Democrats know they 
cannot block these nominees from taking office. Because of the so-
called nuclear option, they reduced the voting threshold from 60 to 51, 
meaning that, with 52 Republicans and, hopefully, with a little help 
from some of our friends across the aisle, every single one of 
President Trump's Cabinet nominees will be confirmed. We can take that 
to the bank.
  All they can do, which is all they have done up to this point, is to 
slow the process down for no reason other than the fact that they can. 
Again, thanks to Senator Reid, all of the President's nominees will be 
confirmed. This type of behavior is really pretty juvenile, if you ask 
me, and it can't actually accomplish anything. It is a strategy in 
search of a goal. They don't have any particular goal in mind, because 
at the end of the day, the President will get the Cabinet that he has 
nominated and deserves.
  After the vote tomorrow on Mrs. DeVos for Cabinet Secretary of 
Education, we will vote to confirm Senator Sessions, our longstanding 
colleague, as Attorney General. In addition to him and the Education 
Secretary, we have the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the 
Secretary of Treasury, too. These, of course, are key positions in the 
new administration.
  Now, 18 days after President Trump's inauguration, he still doesn't 
have the help he needs in these critical posts. I believe this kind of 
mindless obstruction is actually irresponsible, if not downright 
dangerous. I know our Democratic colleagues said they confirmed General 
Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, and later on the Director of the CIA 
and, yes, they finally confirmed the Secretary of State. But the 
Attorney General is part of the national security Cabinet. They run a 
lot of the counterterrorism efforts for the Department of Justice.

[[Page S702]]

  This is not only irresponsible, but this is, I believe, dangerous. It 
should also be an embarrassment. The American people expect their 
Senators and Congress to do our jobs and fulfill the duties to those 
who we represent. If our Democratic colleagues don't want to support 
one of the very well-qualified nominees of the President, that is fine. 
That is their right, but don't slow walk and slow down the institution 
of the Senate just to score some political points or to feed some of 
the irrational rage that you see depicted in some quarters.
  Dragging this out doesn't do any good. It won't change the outcome, 
and it ill serves the American people. Let's get these nominations done 
so they can be sworn in and begin their service to this new 
administration and, more importantly, to the American people.
  In addition to our work on nominations, last week the Senate started 
to consider a number of measures to block a host of regulations put in 
place by the Obama administration during the last 6 months that 
President Obama was in office. Under President Obama, our country 
witnessed a volcanic profusion of rules and regulations that empowered 
unelected bureaucrats and shut out the voices of the elected 
representatives of the people.
  The result? Job creators have less freedom to operate and innovate 
and are instead suffocated by more and more redtape and compliance 
costs. That translates into a slower growing economy, which means less 
jobs and which means the American people are the ones who get hurt, 
directly as a result of this profusion of redtape and regulation.
  According to recent reports, the 600-plus regulations issued by the 
Obama White House came with a $700 billion pricetag for our economy. 
Our economy is not even growing at 2 percent. I think this 
overregulation is largely responsible because this profusion of 
regulations hit businesses both big--they can absorb some matter of the 
costs--but also small businesses, including local community banks that 
are going out of business on a daily basis because they simply can't 
afford to compete and to pay for the countless lawyers to comply with 
all of the redtape and the mindless regulation from the previous 
administration. It is not just financial services. It is health care, 
it is agriculture, and it is all sectors of the economy.
  I am grateful that President Trump has made it clear where he stands 
on all of this, and he has already issued guidance requiring the 
government to cut regulations should it want to add more: Cut two 
regulations for every one you want to add. With President Trump in the 
White House, Congress can reverse many of the Obama regulations. That 
gives the American people and our anemic economic growth some relief.
  Through the Congressional Review Act, Congress can review and 
ultimately block recent regulations handed down by the Federal 
Government. That is what we did last week, and that is what we are 
going to continue to do. We can roll back many of the Obama 
administration rules that are killing jobs and stifling economic 
growth.
  At the end of last week, we repealed the rule called the stream 
buffer rule, which actually didn't have anything to do with streams. It 
was a job-killing regulation that was more about stifling domestic 
energy production, and I am glad we did away with it.
  On Friday, Congress passed another resolution--one I was happy to 
cosponsor. That was aimed at chipping away the regulatory burdens for 
our community banks and other financial services organizations brought 
on by Dodd-Frank.
  I am all for transparency, but I am against laws that give advantages 
to foreign companies over our own. This Securities and Exchange 
Commission rule would have done that by forcing American companies to 
disclose confidential information that their foreign competitors can 
keep under wraps. It should go without saying that each of us want a 
level playing field for our businesses, which help to create jobs and 
grow the economy. That is why we blocked this rule.
  Of course, this and other resolutions are the first few steps in a 
broader strategy to kill overbearing regulations so that our innovators 
and our entrepreneurs aren't suffocated by unnecessary paperwork and 
bureaucracy. That is part of what the American people sent us here to 
do. Certainly, the verdict they rendered on November 8 is that they did 
not want a continuation of the status quo under the previous 
administration. They wanted change. It is integral to restoring our 
economy--the kind of change we are bringing about to restoring our 
economy and helping it grow for everyone.
  I look forward to working with the White House and with our 
colleagues as we continue to find new ways to build up the American 
economy.
  Mr. President, if I can just close on one last topic. I see some 
colleagues here wishing to speak. Tomorrow we will vote on the 
nomination of Betsy Devos to the Department of Education. The Federal 
Government, through the Department of Education, funds about 10 percent 
of public education, because most of that comes from our States; that 
is, the funding and the regulation of education from kindergarten 
through the 12th grade. What this fight over this well-qualified 
nominee is all about is power--as so many of these fights in 
Washington, DC, are about--and the desire to keep power over public 
education in all of our States and all across the country right here 
inside the beltway.
  I believe President Trump chose wisely, not because he chose another 
education bureaucrat who knows all the acronyms and knows the arcanum 
known to people who have been brought up within that establishment. 
Instead, he chose an outsider, someone much like himself but someone 
more interested in results, rather than paying homage to and feeding 
the education establishment here in Washington, DC, and retaining the 
power over the important decisions that should be handed back down to 
the States, down to teachers, parents, and students, as they choose how 
best to get to accomplish our universal goal of making sure every child 
has a good education.
  This fight isn't about the quality of education in our country. This 
fight, for those who are opposing Mrs. DeVos, is largely about whether 
we should retain power here in Washington, DC, so that Washington can 
continue to dictate to the States, parents, and teachers what policies 
they need to apply in our K-12 education system or whether we are going 
to return that power back where it should be--back into the hands of 
parents, teachers, and local school districts.
  That is what this fight is all about. That is why I am glad that 
tomorrow we will confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Listen 
to what the American people told us on November 8 when they said they 
didn't want to maintain the status quo because the status quo is not 
working for them, it is not working for our economy, and, certainly, it 
is not working for our children, each of whom deserves a good 
education.
  Yes, Mrs. DeVos will shake things up a little bit but, more 
importantly, she is going to be part of this effort to return power to 
parents and teachers and to our local school districts. That is what 
this vote will be about tomorrow.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.