[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 23 (Thursday, February 9, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S978-S980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



            The President and Working Together in the Senate

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, this has been a nice morning for me. To 
have both the majority leader and the minority leader say such nice 
things means a lot to me.
  Having said that, let me just say I am concerned about this body and 
how it is going. I am also concerned about the President. I personally 
wish he would choose his words a little more carefully because 
everybody in the world pays attention to the President of the United 
States.
  On the other hand, I kind of find it refreshing that he doesn't take 
any guff from anybody. I like that. He is a person who speaks his mind, 
but I have also seen him change his mind after saying he was for 
something and change it when he got more facts.
  He is a brand new President coming right out of the private sector. 
He is picking excellent people for his Cabinet. I don't know that I 
have ever seen any President pick better Cabinet members than he has, 
not the least of whom will be the two who should go through before the 
end of this week. Congressman Price is a tremendous choice. As both 
leaders had indicated, he probably has as much knowledge about our 
health care system as anyone on Earth.
  Steve Mnuchin--I didn't even know Steve Mnuchin, but I spent hours 
with him. I have to say he is brilliant. I said to him: You know, 
Steven, you are going to lose a lot of money by taking this job. He 
said: I don't care. I want to serve my country.
  I was refreshed by this attitude to the point that I am going to help 
him every way I can to become the greatest Treasury Secretary we have 
ever had. I will tell you one thing, he does understand a lot about 
money. He understands a lot about Wall Street. He understands a lot 
about business acquisitions and business matters. He is a practical 
person, as is our President.
  I don't know that we should be so sensitive sometimes because he 
oftentimes repeals what he said afterward, and I find that refreshing 
too. I happen to like this President. I think he is a refreshing new 
leader for this country. He is not going to play these same old games 
that almost everybody who has been President has played.
  He reminds me a lot of President Reagan in that regard. Of course, 
Reagan had been a Governor before he came here and a good Governor, but 
he didn't take himself too seriously, and he would say some things that 
got him in trouble from time to time too. They all have, haven't they? 
I guess, being President, every word you say is being carefully 
weighed.
  This President is going to have to realize that as well. I think he 
will. He is a very bright man. I think we are lucky that we would have 
somebody come out of the private sector into the White House, with all 
the flaws, and flaws that people are finding with Donald Trump, and be 
willing to take the criticisms and fight back sometimes. Is he perfect? 
No. Is he ever going to be perfect? No, he is not, but neither will any 
of us ever be perfect.

  I will say this. A lot of us have more experience than he has. On the 
other hand, in my eyes, isn't it wonderful to have someone who has been 
immensely successful in the private sector--who has had some very tough 
realities in the private sector, who has had his ups and downs in the 
private sector, who understands pain, who understands exhilaration--
isn't it wonderful to have someone like that who just may be able to 
pull this country out of the stinking mess it is in, a mess caused by a 
superabundance of bureaucracy, by arrogant Members of Congress, and by 
very liberal States that are dependent upon the Federal Government 
rather than upon themselves? I could go on and on and on.
  Let us give this President a little bit of a chance. Above all, let 
us give him his Cabinet and let us quit playing these games. I know 
some on the Democratic side must feel they are making headway by 
playing these silly games, knowing that these Cabinet officials are 
going to go through while they stopped them from being able to do the 
job that needs to be done. They have made it more difficult than any 
President I recall in my time in the U.S. Senate. They are treating 
this President in a very belligerent, awful way. So I think we ought to 
give a little bit of leeway for him to make some verbal mistakes from 
time to time--even though we all wish he wouldn't.
  I will say I think it is time for this body to start working and, 
more importantly, start working together. There is nothing we cannot do 
if we work together. We can save this country if we work together. We 
could have a better attitude in this country if we will work together. 
We can be an exemplar for the rest of the world if we work together.
  Look, there is no excuse for these two big fights that are going on. 
I like big fights on the floor. I like big fights in committees. 
Sometimes out of those fights comes very good legislation or very good 
approaches to government. It is good for us to go at each other from 
time to time. But to make it impossible for a President to have his 
Cabinet early on? There is something wrong with this approach.
  Some people are using this particular situation to enhance their 
ability to run for President.
  I will say it would be wonderful if, once again, we could get 
Democrats and Republicans to work together. I remember in the early 
days, when I became one of the youngest committee chairmen of a major 
committee in history, when I became chairman of the Labor and Human 
Resources Committee--which is now the Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions Committee--there were nine Republicans.
  Senator Kennedy came over from the Judiciary Committee, which he had 
chaired, to become my ranking member. There were seven Democrats, 
including Senator Kennedy, but two of our Republicans from the 
Northeast were from States that were quite liberal then. I couldn't 
blame them, but I knew that Kennedy had the 9-to-7 ideological edge. I 
was going to be chairman, and I could determine some things, but I 
wasn't going to be able to get much done unless I had some help from 
Senator Kennedy.
  Senator Kennedy was not known for being cooperative up to that time. 
He was not known as a person who really aligned with Republicans to try 
to get things done. He was known as a bomb

[[Page S979]]

thrower and as somebody who really was one of the most articulate, 
liberal Democrats in this body.
  In his own way, he was a very interesting and good Senator, but he 
was not known for bipartisan work at that time. When he came over and 
said: I will work with you, there are some things I can't do--meaning 
the unions, the feminists, et cetera--but I will help you, that is how 
the Hatch-Kennedy relationship began and began to bear fruit.
  It could not have happened, except for two tough people with 
differing principles who were willing to get together and set aside 
their differences and do some things that were not only important to 
the country but beneficial to the country. We were known as the odd 
couple. He would laugh about that in public and say: We are known as 
the odd couple. I would always point to him and say: We all know who 
the odd one is, don't we.
  He would laugh. He was a fun guy to be with. When he was serious 
about something, he could be a formidable challenger, but he earned the 
right to be that. He didn't just pop off because he wanted to be 
President. He earned the right, he earned our respect, and he earned my 
respect. From that time forth--he was considered a very great Senator 
at that time, but he was not considered a great legislator. He went on 
from there and became a great legislator. I know because we worked 
together on things that are law today and good laws today. He had to 
learn to be able to compromise to be able to get this type of work 
done--and so did I.
  We have to earn respect here. It isn't just by popping off on the 
Senate floor, it is by working as hard as we can to do the best we can 
for our constituents, for the people in this country of both parties--
of all parties--in the interest of everybody.
  I wish we could get more of that back. I miss Senator Kennedy. I 
could talk to him. I could pull him off his liberal perch. I could get 
him to do things that nobody could get him to do up until that time, 
and he could get me to do some things I wasn't inclined to do at the 
beginning. But as we worked them out, we found out that some of the 
things we both agreed on--by pulling each other together--became some 
of the most important bills in history.
  I would like to see more of that here. I wish to see us all start 
working together. A good way to do that would be to give the President 
the Cabinet he needs and wants. Maybe that is one reason why he is 
saying some things that those on the other side are finding fault with 
and maybe on my side are finding fault with. He doesn't have his 
Cabinet. As President, he doesn't have the advisers he needs. We are 
not helping him here--as President. We are not helping him get the 
people around him whom he needs. We are delaying, obfuscating, and 
fighting against people whom we shouldn't be fighting against.
  In terms of Congressman Price and Steven Mnuchin, these are two 
extremely important men for two extremely important positions who are 
left floundering because we are unwilling to get the job done. If there 
were real arguments against them, that is another matter, but some of 
the phony arguments that have been brought up are just pathetic.
  I remember when one of the Democrats wanted to be Treasurer of the 
United States. He had some real flaws. He even hadn't paid taxes in 
some ways, but he was a good person and wanted to serve his country. We 
worked out the difficulties, and he was able to serve as Secretary of 
the Treasury. I can name a number of others. If we want perfection 
here, we are crazy. Nobody is perfect, and everybody has some things 
that they wish they didn't have in their biography.

  But I can say this: I was very disappointed in this body for holding 
up Jeff Sessions, who is a really good person. I haven't always agreed 
with Jeff Sessions, but I knew one thing: He was honest in his beliefs, 
and he was courteous in making his arguments. He did a lot of things 
that really were right. Frankly, the fact that we differed was kind of 
irrelevant because he was worthy of his position. I could go through a 
number of others.
  Let me just say that I happen to be one of the people who really like 
the minority leader in this body. I think he could become one of the 
great leaders of this Senate. He is smart; we all know that. He is 
aggressive; we all know that. He has had some degree of success around 
here; we all know that. He represents a huge constituency; we all know 
that. He is a good man; we all know that. And he has a good family; we 
all know that. Let's get rid of some of the picayune fights around 
here, and let's start working together.
  The majority leader, Senator McConnell, in my opinion, is the best 
majority leader we have had here in a long, long time. He is smart. He 
understands the system. He loves the Senate. He is a very honest and 
good man. He is tough as nails. I am sure he has flaws, just like all 
the rest of us.
  But these are two really potentially great leaders who could not only 
bring us together but could help us to save this country at a time when 
it needs saving, where we have $100 billion in unfunded liabilities--I 
mean trillion dollars; not billion, trillion dollars--where we are 
deeply in debt. We are now $20 trillion in debt.
  These two gentlemen could bring us together and could help solve 
these problems if we would put the politics aside, for the most part. 
We have to have some politics here, or this would be an uninteresting 
body, but we don't have to have it on everything. If these two 
gentlemen could get together--they are both bright, they are both 
smart, and they both have given a lot of time to the U.S. Senate. I 
like both of them. I could say I love both of them. If they would 
really start working together, we could turn this country around. But 
to do that, the distinguished Senator from New York is going to have to 
be concerned about the national debt and the annual deficit, and the 
distinguished Senator from Kentucky is going to have to worry a lot 
about what motivates the Democrats and what we can do to find common 
ground with the Democrats.
  I believe these two men can do that, and I am hoping with all my 
heart they will, and I am praying for them every day, that they might 
get together and that we might put aside party politics in favor of 
bringing this country out of the mess it is in. I believe they can do 
that, and I believe we can help them do that. I would like to see it 
done because we can't keep going the way we are going.
  I actually believe the President will grow into becoming a great 
President, too, if we will help him a little bit rather than just fight 
everything he does or everything he says or try to criticize him every 
time he opens his mouth. I would like to see us show some respect for 
the President too.
  I have a lot of respect for these two leaders. They are great men. 
But I would like to see them be greater so that they will work 
together. You will notice I am just saying ``work together.'' I would 
like it to be this way, all the way together, but I will take this, if 
we could just get people to work together around here.
  I have said enough. I just want these two leaders to know that I am 
pulling for both of them, and I am hoping we can still have our fights 
and still have our arguments and still have the enjoyable aspects 
around here of comradeship and working with each other. But I am hoping 
we can set aside some of these animosities and give the President his 
Cabinet and his leaders so that he has at least a shot at pulling this 
country out of the mess it is in. It is going to take a President 
Trump. It is not going to take another one of those--I believe 
President Trump is the person who is right for this time. I believe he 
will do a terrific job if we will help him. We will have differences, 
but I believe he will pay more attention, and I believe we will get 
better people to come into the government to help him to do this work 
and his job.
  I may be a little bit naive in thinking that we can do all of this, 
but I think we can. And that is said by somebody who was told: You 
don't want to work with Senator Kennedy because he is a rock-ribbed 
liberal who doesn't really care about what Republicans like. Well, I 
found that by working with him and he found that by working with me we 
were able to do things that helped our country. It was partly because 
he was a prestigious Senator, no question, and partly because I am an 
active, hard-working, fighting Senator who kind of appealed to him 
because he knew he had somebody who would help fight these things 
through, and I was smart enough to be able to help him to get things 
done in better ways than they would have been done.

[[Page S980]]

  Well, I have said enough. I just love this body. I personally have 
been very moved by the kindness of the two leaders, and I just hope we 
can get together and do these things the right way. We are not going to 
go anywhere with constant bickering and fighting and the constant 
running for President that we have around here. I don't mind that. I 
mean, I think there is something to that, but it can't be every time a 
person opens his or her mouth.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, I rise today to say thank you. Republicans 
and Democrats have been talking for a long time this week, and perhaps 
that is productive. But without any question, from what we have seen, I 
think both sides would agree that the support cast has made this 
possible. I think it is important for us to pause for just a moment and 
say thank you.
  We have pages who are juniors in high school here with us around the 
clock, and we want to say thank you to the pages. I think about the 
fact that we have law enforcement guarding this place so we can be here 
safely, all night long. We have Parliamentarians and clerks who have 
been at their places on and off over the last 4 days, nearly around the 
clock. I want to say on behalf of our side and the Democrats, I believe 
we all are very thankful and appreciative for your long hours and the 
time you have served us. Thank you for helping us represent the 
American people.
  I would also like to point out a few people by name because these 
folks have been here for up to 57 hours straight--57 consecutive hours 
of doing their jobs. Captioning services: Sandra Schumm, Brenda 
Jameson, Doreen Chendorian, Jennifer Smolka, and Laurie Harris.
  Official Reporters of Debates, 57 consecutive hours of work: Patrick 
Renzi, Susie Nguyen, Julia Jones, Mary Carpenter, Patrice Boyd, Octavio 
Colominas, Alice Haddow, Andrea Huston, Carole Darche, Desirae Jura, 
Megan McKenzie, Wendy Caswell, Diane Dorhamer, Mark Stuart, and Julie 
Bryan.
  On behalf of a thankful Senate, we appreciate your time and your 
dedication to the American people, allowing us to do what we have been 
doing.
  God bless.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, let me first of all say I echo the 
comments of my colleague from South Carolina. Thank you to all of you 
who have been working so hard.
  I rise to yield the remainder of my postcloture time to Senator 
Wyden.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  The Senator from Illinois.
  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise to yield the remainder of my 
postcloture time to Senator Schumer.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator has that right.
  The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate your flexibility during 
Senator Hatch's speech. I thank Senator Duckworth and Senator Cortez 
Masto for their evolving leadership and for their passion about these 
issues.