[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 180 (Wednesday, November 14, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6941-S6942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Senate Accomplishments

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as I return to the Nation's Capital from 
home, back in Austin, TX, so we can finish our work out before the end 
of the year, I want to relay some of the wisdom that I heard from 
working families and Texans back home about their verdict on what we 
have done so far this year and actually even last year.
  I stopped by a couple of food banks--one in North Texas and one in El 
Paso--ahead of this year's upcoming holiday season. This is when they 
have the greatest demand for food by people who need either to 
supplement their diets or who rely on food banks to provide them with 
their basic sustenance.
  I also had a chance to visit with a Nobel Prize winner at the MD 
Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Jim Allison, to discuss his groundbreaking 
work in cancer treatment, much of which was funded by money we have 
appropriated to the National Institutes of Health, which, in turn, 
provides grants for basic science and other research that come up with 
lifesaving cures, such as Dr. Allison has come up with.
  Then I met with the local leadership in the Corpus Christi area, down 
in the gulf coast, to discuss their Hurricane Harvey recovery process. 
It has been a little over a year since Hurricane Harvey hit. Of course, 
many of those communities and many families are continuing to recover 
from that devastation.
  I also held a roundtable with local leaders and the drug-free 
communities councils to discuss how local, State, and Federal leaders 
can work together to fight the supply of illegal drugs coming into the 
country and to support those who are in recovery from addiction. It 
won't surprise you that people had a lot to say. Yet their stories 
remind me that while being back here in Washington--although Texas is a 
long way away, about 3 hours or so by jet--folks back home are paying 
attention to what we are doing here, and I know some of that gets lost 
in the back-and-forth of the political campaigns that have just passed.
  There is one thing that we have done that I think has been well 
received, and that is, since the voters gave us a Republican in the 
White House and gave us Republican majorities in the House and the 
Senate, we have put our foot on the gas pedal and haven't let off 
since. We have delivered concrete results for the American people, and 
they have continued to see gains under this administration--promises 
made and promises kept.
  I will start with the transformation of the Federal judiciary. One of 
the most important jobs the U.S. Senate has under the Constitution is 
to provide advice and consent on executive branch nominations--in this 
case, to our article III courts. A historic number of judges who will 
interpret the law as written have been confirmed under the 
administration. That number is 84, and it includes the most ever 
appellate judges--the midlevel Federal courts--to have ever been 
confirmed during a President's first 2 years in office. These are 
principled, experienced, highly skilled lawyers and judges who respect 
precedent and understand their critical but limited role under our 
system of government. Their job is to interpret the law; they shouldn't 
rewrite it. That is one of the principal battles we end up fighting 
when Supreme Court nominations come across the well of the Senate 
floor. There are those who think that judges should be able to impose 
their views on the American people even though they don't run for 
election and have lifetime tenures, but that is simply not our system. 
In my view, that is an impermissible role to be played by a judge.
  When it comes to judges, perhaps our two greatest achievements have 
been Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom were confirmed to 
the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, as I say, we have confirmed a total of 84 
other Federal judges, including 3 on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals 
from Texas. All of these nominees and now judges have brought great 
intellect, legal expertise, impartiality, and good will to bear as they 
make decisions with their very distinguished colleagues.
  We saw the first major overhaul in the Tax Code in 31 years. It 
lowered rates for every tax bracket, doubled the child tax credit to 
help working families, and made our business tax scheme more 
competitive globally. All of this has allowed many of those employers 
to pass along benefits through bonuses and higher wages. We have also 
incentivized investment in economically distressed communities in every 
State through the Opportunity Zone Program.
  Some like to shrug off the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by 
calling the savings crumbs, which is what Ms. Pelosi has called them, 
but they are certainly not taking into account what I am hearing from 
my constituents back home in Texas. The effects of tax reform are real, 
and they are extremely significant to every American. All employers 
have been able to provide additional benefits--as I said, some in the 
form of bonuses or in increased pay. Those who have seen their pay 
remain the same have seen more take-home pay because their tax 
obligations have been reduced.
  One of the taxpayers I heard from in Texas was a gentleman by the 
name of David Tong from Arlington, TX, which is halfway between Fort 
Worth and Dallas. Dave wrote to me to say that the company at which he 
is employed has increased the number of hours people are able to work. 
He said Christmas bonuses have been promised, too, and that the company 
has hired more people, has bought more new machinery based on the 
accelerated depreciation provided for under the bill, and has made long 
overdue repairs to their working place. Now, with the tax law changes 
in place, David says the guys down on the shop floor are taking home a 
little more in their paychecks each week. He said all of this adds up 
and makes a huge difference in the lives of the guys on the shop floor.
  We have heard similar stories from around the country because more 
than 700 companies, including many that are based in Texas, have used 
the tax savings to benefit their employees and their customers. They 
have announced pay raises, as I said, and 401(k) match increases.
  We have actually seen seniors and people on fixed incomes have a 
decrease in their utility bills, when their electricity is provided by 
investor-owned utilities, because of the reduction in taxes to be paid 
by those investor-owned utilities. So there are lower utility rates for 
seniors and those on fixed incomes.
  These developments are part of the reason the economy is thriving. 
Since tax reform was signed into law, the economy has added more than 2 
million jobs, and unemployment has been at its lowest rate since 1969. 
My State has a population that is roughly 38 to 40 percent Hispanic; 
yet Hispanic unemployment sits at the record low of 4.4 percent. That 
is a big deal to my constituents back home. Joblessness for African 
Americans has fallen to its lowest level ever--the lowest level ever--
under this administration.

  Then, of course, with more demand--with more money in people's 
pockets, more money to spend--there is more demand for goods and 
services. So in October alone, the economy has added another 250,000 
jobs, exceeding all expectations. As a matter of fact, the biggest 
concern I hear from employers now is that they are looking for 
qualified employees who are able to perform the jobs that are now 
available, and many of these are very well-paying jobs.
  So people are back to work. They are earning more. They are 
investing, and the economy is moving at full throttle.
  But it wasn't just the work of the tax bill. That was just part of 
it. Part of it has to do with the increased confidence and optimism 
that people feel about their future as a result of the improvement of 
their economic circumstances. We saw that with the passage of the 
bipartisan Dodd-Frank reform. We have also provided additional relief 
to our community banks and credit unions so they are able to spend less 
money on redtape and have more money invested

[[Page S6942]]

in their local communities and in their small businesses.
  We also know that regulation is important, but overregulation is a 
job killer. We have rolled back overregulation that was stifling job 
creation, and we are creating an environment that fosters job growth. 
Our reforms have created a savings of at least $50 billion for small 
businesses and entrepreneurs. That is why the economy is on fire.
  We have also done important things to help improve access to 
healthcare. We have repealed the Independent Payment Advisory Board 
provisions of ObamaCare and repealed the costly individual mandate, 
which essentially was a tax on poor people and middle-income people 
when they couldn't afford to buy the ObamaCare policies with all of the 
coverage that they didn't necessarily even want or need, but it added 
to the cost of the policy. When they couldn't afford the policy, they 
were taxed by their own government and punished through the individual 
mandate.
  What we have done is to try to restore the authority and the power of 
citizens themselves to make healthcare decisions for themselves and 
their families that they want and that they can afford by starting to 
recreate an individual market. To me, that is the best way for us to 
offer choice and to keep prices down--to create an individual market, 
not for government to mandate a one-size-fits-all approach, which is 
what ObamaCare did. It forced many young people to pay a lot more for 
their insurance to subsidize others who were covered by ObamaCare.
  We also addressed the public health challenges we face in this 
country in another significant way. The Nation's drug addiction 
epidemic killed roughly 72,000 Americans last year. Some 72,000 
Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses. Nearly 50,000 of those 
were related to opioids, whether a prescription drug or heroin or 
fentanyl. It has left many families in disarray and overwhelmed medical 
professionals and emergency personnel in many communities.
  Through the collaboration of about 70 bipartisan proposals--people 
say nothing bipartisan happens here, but thanks to 70 bipartisan 
proposals--that were included in this landmark opioids bill, we are not 
only addressing stemming the tide of drugs coming across our border but 
also supporting those who are trying to recover from a drug addiction.
  Among other reforms, the law requires screening of packages being 
mailed from overseas for substances like fentanyl. It increases access 
to treatment for people with substance disorders. It expands research 
into nonaddictive painkillers, and it provides more money for 
enforcement and interdiction.
  But healthy communities are also safe communities. In addition to the 
opioids bill, we took further steps to enhance the safety of our 
communities and to help victims. With three new laws, we aimed to 
reduce the backlog of untested rape kits in forensic labs so that 
perpetrators of sexual assault can be identified with near certainty 
and those wrongly charged can be exonerated.
  We also have assisted our law enforcement in prosecuting cold cases 
and eradicating the scourge of online sex trafficking. We didn't stop 
there, though. We kept communities' needs in mind and turned toward 
fixing our Nation's outdated infrastructure.
  In October, we passed a major water infrastructure bill that helps to 
keep our communities safe by providing dams and levees and addressing 
the need for drinking water--clean, safe drinking water--and addressing 
the underdevelopment of wastewater systems across the country.
  But our work on infrastructure extended far beyond public water 
systems. It also included passing the Federal Aviation Administration 
Reauthorization Act, which modernizes airport infrastructure, increases 
safety, and boosts industry innovation.
  We also helped to support our men and women in uniform, past and 
present. By passing a Defense authorization bill, we gave our troops 
the largest pay raise in nearly 10 years and began to restore military 
readiness in an increasingly dangerous world.
  The National Defense Authorization Act, named after our former 
chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain, ensures that our 
troops have the resources, the equipment, and the training they need to 
defend our country and keep Americans safe.
  For our veterans, we passed the VA Mission Act--again, a bipartisan 
piece of legislation. Access to healthcare had become a nightmare for 
many who sacrificed so much for our country. We saw them being met with 
difficulty getting appointments because they were backlogged so much, 
or they had to drive great distances to get access to basic healthcare. 
So we passed the VA Mission Act with an eye toward providing more 
efficient access to care in local communities.
  Beyond that, we did the basic work of funding the Federal Government 
on time and through regular order. We haven't finished that job yet. We 
have until December 7 to finish the job, and I hope we do. It is not a 
particularly flashy topic, but it is one of the most fundamental duties 
of the Congress.
  So our record is clear, and the voters responded by rewarding the 
majority with an even greater Senate majority in the next Congress. But 
we need to finish out the rest of this year strong. We are adding to 
our list of accomplishments this week by passing a bipartisan bill to 
provide critical funding for the Coast Guard. Our Coast Guard is made 
up of men and women who risk their lives to save others and to protect 
our ports and to stop illegal drugs from reaching our country. This 
bill ensures that they can continue that work with the predictability 
they deserve.
  Moving forward, we have a significant to-do list before we break for 
Christmas. We need to finalize the farm bill. We need to reauthorize a 
number of other bills, and despite the large number of nominations we 
were able to get done before we recessed, there is still a huge backlog 
of many executive branch nominations. For some reason, after the 2016 
election, our Democratic colleagues decided they were going to obstruct 
or delay as many Trump nominations to executive agencies on the bench 
as they could. Unfortunately, they have been too successful in doing 
so, but I am confident that the Senate Majority Leader, Senator 
McConnell, will use the leverage of people wanting to get home at 
Christmastime and Thanksgiving to ensure that we get a maximum number 
of these noncontroversial nominees supported. These are people who will 
enjoy broad bipartisan support if we can just get our Democratic 
colleagues to quit the obstruction.
  We have just a short time left to finish this Congress strong, but 
the past 2 years have been an unmitigated success for the country. We 
have delivered on promises we have made. We have put money back in the 
pockets of hard-working families. We enhanced community safety and 
fought for victims. We have modernized infrastructure and supported our 
men and women in uniform. I hope we can continue this momentum into the 
116th Congress that begins in January.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.