[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 92 (Tuesday, June 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2975-S2978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Accomplishments of the Republican-Led Congress
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I want to take just a few minutes to
talk about the last 18 months and what a Republican-led Congress has
done during the first 500 days of the Trump administration.
I heard my friend the Democratic leader call this a Republican
economy, and I am proud to embrace that for the reasons I will mention
here in just a moment and contrast that to life in America
postrecession, in 2008, where slow economic growth, high unemployment,
and a disproportionate number of people not even seeking work were
accepted as the new norm.
The American people understand they don't have to accept that as the
new normal--that we can aspire to better, and we can do better, and
that is exactly what we have seen manifested in the American economy.
The rank-and-file American worker, every American family, and everybody
in this country--regardless of race, ethnicity, whatever identity you
might want to talk about--have benefited.
There have been many accomplishments, but perhaps the greatest, as I
said, is the new energized state of the economy. There is a sense of
hope and optimism once again. We can see that reflected in people's
retirement accounts mainly invested in the stock market. The stock
market has boomed since the Trump election, and that is not just for
the big corporations. That is for the teachers, the pension funds, the
firefighters, the first responders--for average Americans who invest
their retirement savings in mutual funds or in the stock market--and
they have benefited.
The unemployment rate has reached a 48-year low--a 48-year low--and
14 States have hit record low unemployment as well.
My friend from New York talked about gasoline prices. Oil output
jumped to the highest on record in March, including a 4-percent
increase in production in my home State. In
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other words, we are depending less and less on imported oil from Saudi
Arabia and Middle East countries, which have been the focus of our
geopolitics for so many years because they have been the main source of
the energy that drives the world economy, and now we are producing more
of that here in America. That means more jobs and more national
security right here at home.
Consumer confidence is at a 17-year high. People are feeling
optimistic and hopeful about the future. Nearly 3 million jobs have
been created since President Trump took office, including 304,000 in
the manufacturing sector, 337,000 in construction, and 223,000 in May
alone.
What I hear time and again when I go back to Texas is employers
saying: We are having a hard time finding the workers we need because
there is so much demand for workers, for laborers, that now employers
are having to compete for the workforce they need in order to perform
the jobs they have now, as a result of the growing economy. What does
that mean? It means that paychecks go up as there are labor shortages,
and employers have to compete more for that workforce. Sixty-seven
percent of Americans believe that now is a good time to find a quality
job.
The biggest challenge we have, given the rapidly evolving nature of
our global economy and of technology and the jobs that are being
created, is to train and equip the workforce of tomorrow for the jobs
that will be available. That is why we have invested so much money in
our community colleges and workforce training, in partnerships with
industry--to make sure that more and more people can qualify for those
good, well-paying jobs.
I am thinking about a single mom, a Hispanic woman in Amarillo, TX,
who worked as a jail guard--until she went to Amarillo community
college and learned how to be an aircraft mechanic. Today, she works on
the production line for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, one of the
most advanced air platforms in the world. My recollection is that she
is making $18 an hour now. That is a real solution for a real problem,
and I bet every Member of this Chamber could talk about similar
stories.
In Houston, as a result of the natural gas renaissance in this
country--thanks to the science, thanks to the creativity and innovation
of the American energy companies--we are now seeing a huge influx of
petrochemical companies reestablishing themselves in places where they
can get access to low-cost feedstock fuel. What that is doing is
creating even more jobs.
In the Pasadena Unified School District and around the Houston area,
they are working with San Jacinto community college to help people who
don't yet have the skills they need get the certificates they need in
order to qualify for those good, well-paying jobs. Not everybody needs
to go to a 4-year liberal arts college. If they want to, I am all for
it. But many people want to get a good job, enjoying the solid middle
class, and do jobs that need to be done. They need access to training
in order to get the qualifications they need. That, to me, is one of
the big challenges that confront us, particularly as the economy
changes so quickly because of technology.
Another big reason the economy has taken off like a rocket is the tax
reform package we passed last summer. That has been perhaps the biggest
game changer. The problem my friend the Democratic leader has is that
every single Democrat voted against it. Remember, Nancy Pelosi called
the benefits of that ``crumbs.'' What it has done is open doors and new
opportunities for American families.
According to the White House, American families will receive $3.2
trillion in gross tax cuts, and they have seen the child tax credit
double. The top corporate rate was lowered from 35 to 21 percent so
that American businesses could be more productive.
When President Obama talked about the need for America to be more
competitive by lowering that corporate rate, he talked about our need
to compete in the global economy. When we debated the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act, Democrats called it a corporate giveaway. That is absolutely
indefensible.
The results of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have been profound, indeed.
More than 500 companies have used these tax savings to benefit their
employees. They have announced pay raises, 401(k) match increases.
There have been cuts to utility rates for seniors and people on fixed
incomes because investor-owned utilities have had to lower their
charges in order to comply with the law, which allows them a reasonable
rate of return. They can't charge what the market will bear; they need
to comply with their local laws. So what we have seen is that many
investor-owned utilities have lowered utility rates for seniors and
people on fixed incomes.
We have seen other businesses offer substantial bonuses and other
benefits. A recent survey by the National Association of Manufacturers
showed that 77 percent of manufacturers in America intend to increase
hiring, and 93 percent of them have a positive outlook.
One of the things President Trump talked about during his campaign
was that so much of our manufacturing had moved overseas. But what
these numbers indicate is that the manufacturing sector is alive and
well here in the United States when given the opportunity to compete on
a level playing field.
This is the kind of optimism I am hearing when I visit places like
College Station, Austin, and Amarillo, home of the Big Texan 72-ounce
steak. If you can eat it in an hour, along with a baked potato, you can
get the meal for free. I didn't try that, but some people do, and some
people get the free meal--but not a lot of people, would be my guess.
In Austin, I visited with one of the owners of Wally's Burgers and
met with other small businesses--pest control companies and the like--
and they talked about the benefits they are seeing in their small
businesses from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The stories just go on and
on and on.
I have also had constituents write to my office, explaining how the
boost in their monthly paychecks is making a big difference when it
comes to buying groceries, paying bills, and starting long-delayed
projects. Maybe no Democrat voter lives paycheck to paycheck, but I can
tell you, some of my constituents do, and they appreciate the
additional money in their paycheck as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act.
I think what happened, when our Democratic colleagues unanimously
voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they were making a big bet
that we would fail to deliver that bill, and it would somehow be an
embarrassment and setback for this side of the aisle. Well, they bet
against the American people, and they bet against our commitment to
make sure the benefits of this bill would be delivered to the average
American family.
In one recent piece of news, Costco, which has ten locations in
Texas, announced they would be increasing wages for 130,000 employees,
not because the government mandated it but because they need to do that
in order to be competitive, and they are passing the benefits on to
their employees. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Amidst all of this good news, we also need to remember that there are
two specific targeted measures that are often overlooked. It repealed
ObamaCare's burdensome tax on the middle class, who refused to purchase
Washington-mandated health insurance. This is the so-called ObamaCare
mandate. It basically was a tax on poor and middle-income people who
couldn't afford to buy the high-price ObamaCare policies.
We also opened up something that has been a point of contention for
many, many years--the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy
exploration.
Senator Scott from South Carolina talked about his Opportunity Zone
provision, which provides tax benefits to businesses that start a
business and grow a business in poor and blighted areas. Senator
Fischer from Nebraska talked about her tax provision, which provides
encouragement to employers to provide family leave when families need
that in order to deal with a family illness or a newborn child or
whatever the case may be.
Those are real and tangible benefits to the people we serve. And our
colleagues want to talk about corporate giveaways? That is pure
demagoguery, short and simple. What else do you have when you have made
a bet and you lost that bet by betting against the benefits from this
bill?
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It is not just the economy that deserves mention; another important
accomplishment has been the confirmation of judges who will interpret
the Constitution faithfully and say what the law is, not what, because
of their personal policy preferences, they wish it might be.
In a former life, I served on the bench--the State bench, not the
Federal bench--for 13 years at the trial court level and on the Texas
Supreme Court. I believe very strongly in the importance of having
judges--that third branch of government--who will understand and
appreciate their role in the U.S. Government. In other words, the
reason we don't elect judges is because we don't expect them to gauge
public opinion. The reason we don't expect them to campaign on an
agenda--we expect them to interpret the law, including the Constitution
of the United States, the fundamental law, not to promote policies
based on their preference or based on some ideology. To me, that is the
opposite of what we want judges to do.
The Trump administration has seen confirmed 21 circuit court judges.
These are the intermediate appeals court judges who essentially are the
court of last resort for most cases since the U.S. Supreme Court now
only hears about 80 cases a year. They provide the guidance in the most
difficult cases, where the circuit courts are divided.
This now means that one in eight appeals court judges has been
appointed by President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. These
are people who will serve not just 4 years, not just 6 years, not just
8 years, but perhaps 20 years or 30 years or longer--a lifetime tenure.
These circuit courts will hear appeals from district courts that set
binding precedent for those lower courts on a wide range of issues.
It is worth pointing out that President Obama's 21st circuit court
nominee was not confirmed until 33 months into his administration. So
it is not just that we are confirming good judges; we are doing it at a
very good clip, comparatively speaking.
The President has appointed and we have confirmed two judges to the
Fifth Circuit who serve the State of Texas--Don Willett, a former
justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and Jim Ho, the former Texas
solicitor general. We have one in the queue who has been voted out of
committee, Andy Oldham, the counsel to our Governor, who has been
nominated to the Fifth Circuit. And that is not to mention some very
talented district judges, the people who are at the ground level of our
civil justice system, people like Karen Scholer and David Counts. We
hope to have one more Federal district judge confirmed before the end
of this week--Fernando Rodriguez, whom Senator Cruz and I recommended
to the President and he has nominated.
The other major accomplishment of this administration over the last
18 months is repealing burdensome overregulation from the previous
administration. Many of these regulations were passed by the Obama
administration as they were heading out the door, without a real
opportunity for public input and review. We have repealed a historic
number--16 of them--using the Congressional Review Act. Previously,
there had been only one example where Congress had repealed a
regulation using the Congressional Review Act.
Thanks to the junior Senator from Pennsylvania, we have also repealed
something that was a bullying tactic by the Federal Government. This
was a scheme by the previous administration to use guidance from
Federal agencies where they didn't pass a rule, where they were
required under the law to gain input as part of that rulemaking
process. So what they would do is they would issue guidance. You can
imagine how that was treated by people in the private sector. They
didn't want to have to defend a lawsuit, so they grudgingly complied
with the guidance even though there wasn't any process and input from
the public on what that guidance should be. Thanks again to our
colleague Senator Toomey, we have successfully repealed those sorts of
quasi-regulations, as well, using the Congressional Review Act.
Our use of the Congressional Review Act has been referred to as the
most ambitious regulatory rollback since Ronald Reagan.
As I talk to people, the job creators in our country, they tell me
that not only has it been the tax cuts, but it has been the regulatory
rollback and it has been the signal that Washington is sending that
businesses small and large will have more freedom to pursue their ends,
their dreams, without the wet blanket of government regulation.
President Trump has also used his executive branch pen to issue 22
deregulatory actions for every new regulatory one. These are big wins,
including for our farmers and energy producers.
On top of that, when it comes to ObamaCare, one of the aspects of
ObamaCare was something called the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
We repealed that in our budget agreement earlier this year, which will
allow seniors and their families to take greater control of their
healthcare decisions without being subjected to the whims of unelected
bureaucrats.
What ``unelected bureaucrats'' translates into is ``unaccountable
bureaucrats.'' In other words, if you don't like what the bureaucrat is
doing, you have almost no recourse, and that is by design in this
Independent Payment Advisory Board. When it comes to your healthcare,
you want to maintain your ability to petition your representatives if
you feel the government is not treating you correctly, which this
Independent Payment Advisory Board eliminated.
A fourth major accomplishment is providing relief to our community
and midsized financial institutions, which have been hit hardest by
some of the one-size-fits-all rulemaking approaches under Dodd-Frank.
We all remember that Dodd-Frank was a response to the financial crisis
of 2008, followed by the great recession. Congress, as it often does,
went too far. The pendulum swung too far and affected our community
banks and credit unions. I tell my community bankers in Texas: You
weren't the target, perhaps, but you were the collateral damage.
We want small businesses and working families to succeed. We want
them to get access to credit, the credit they need in order to succeed.
Regulating community banks out of business is not the answer.
This bill was sponsored by the senior Senator from Idaho, Mr. Crapo,
and was passed on a bipartisan basis. This bill, which just passed the
House, is a big win for smaller financial institutions, and it will
make it easier for them to serve their communities by approving
mortgages, providing credit, and lending to small businesses. This
isn't mainly a win for the small banks; this is a win for their
customers, for the small businesses and individuals who need access to
the credit they could not get under the status quo.
Another thing that we have done recently which I think bears note--
unfortunately, so much happens in Washington, and it seems like every
15 minutes there is breaking news, and sometimes we overlook and don't
celebrate these great victories, in this case on behalf of our
veterans. We have been accomplishing a lot for our servicemembers and
veterans. Last year, we helped restore America's defense with the
greatest investment in our military in 15 years and largest troop pay
increase in 8 years.
We have a bad habit here in Congress: After we have fought a war, we
begin to think we can cash the peace dividend. We start to think, OK,
now the world is safe, and now we can roll back our money spent on
national security. Unfortunately, the world continues to be a dangerous
place, and the world needs American leadership. Unfortunately, that is
expensive, but there really is no option because if we don't have
peace, if we don't have stability, none of the other benefits of life--
liberty and the pursuit of happiness--can exist.
Getting back to our veterans, we passed the VA MISSION Act in the
last couple of weeks, which will make significant reforms to the
Department of Veterans Affairs, strengthening the healthcare and
community care options that are available to American veterans. This
bill provided $5.2 billion for the Veterans Choice Program. For
example, if you are a veteran and you call to make an appointment and
they say ``Well, come see us in August'' and you can't wait, or if you
have to drive 100 or 200 miles--and in the Rio Grande Valley in South
Texas, if you really need to go to the veterans hospital, you have to
drive all the way to San
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Antonio to get your healthcare--what the act did and what we passed on
a bipartisan basis allows veterans a choice. You can go see a local
healthcare provider, and you can go to a local hospital if they can
provide that service quicker and more efficiently.
We also provided for expanded caregiver assistance. This is a big
deal. The times I have been to Walter Reed visiting Texans who were
injured in Afghanistan or Iraq, frequently that injured servicemember
had a spouse or family member who basically would have to give up their
job in order to take care of their injured spouse. It is only right and
it is only just that we provide expanded caregiver assistance to those
individuals who do that.
Finally, we have seen a crackdown on imported illegal drugs. As of
April, the Border Patrol had seized 284 pounds of fentanyl--already
greatly surpassing the total amount seized in fiscal year 2017. I don't
have to repeat what a devastating impact the opioid crisis--
prescription drugs or the alternatives, which are heroin and fentanyl--
has had on our communities.
These are just a handful of ways we are doing what the American
people elected us to do. We put money back in their pockets. We rolled
back regulations. We strengthened our military. We have given
healthcare flexibility to our veterans. We protected our communities
from harm. The best part of this story is, we are just getting started.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time
is expired.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Wier
nomination?
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons),
the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New Mexico
(Mr. Heinrich), and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) are
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 95, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 113 Ex.]
YEAS--95
Alexander
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Harris
Hassan
Hatch
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Jones
Kaine
Kennedy
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Lee
Manchin
Markey
McCaskill
McConnell
Merkley
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sanders
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Shaheen
Shelby
Smith
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
Young
NOT VOTING--5
Coons
Duckworth
Heinrich
McCain
Menendez
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________