[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 185 (Monday, November 26, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7073-S7075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Senate Accomplishments

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, Members of Congress are making their way 
back to the Nation's Capital after celebrating Thanksgiving with folks 
at home, with their friends and their families. To me, this holiday 
offered a little bit of respite and time for reflection--a time to 
pause with our families and to think about what we have to be grateful 
for.
  This year, I am particularly thankful for the organizations I met 
with when I was home in Texas that donated a lot of their most valuable 
resource--their time. Thousands took time out of their family 
celebrations to provide meals and assistance to those less fortunate. I 
had the opportunity to join the ranks of some of my other volunteers, 
like Mayor Steve Adler of Austin, with whom I served meals at the H-E-B 
Feast of Sharing in Austin. I also donned an apron and gloves to help 
prepare turkey for the annual Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner in San 
Antonio, where more than 50 companies and 4,000 volunteers partnered to 
cook and serve meals. In 1979, Raul Jimenez, who is famous in San 
Antonio for his contributions there and has now left us, started this 
dinner with the goal of feeding 100 of San Antonio's elderly families 
and those less fortunate. Thirty-nine years later, his daughter and 
grandson, Raul Jimenez III, carry on this tradition and serve meals to 
feed 25,000 hungry San Antonians.
  During the holiday season, we all have a chance to express our 
gratitude by extending a helping hand, providing a meal, or maybe 
simply offering words of encouragement. I was grateful I was able to 
join with some of the remarkable and selfless volunteers doing just 
that when I was back home. I want to make sure we bring that same 
attitude back to Congress, where I have the privilege of representing 
28 million of my fellow Texans--not only the attitude of gratitude for 
the great privilege of living in a country such as ours but also 
feeling the weight of responsibility to actually produce results for 
them.
  My discussions with my constituents when I was back home ran the 
gamut of possible topics, but what I keep hearing is that they feel as 
if they are doing much better economically. They see an economy that 
has been invigorated, and, yes, they have a little bit

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more money in their pockets to spend on holiday gifts.
  When I enter the beltway in Washington, I don't read a whole lot 
about how well people are doing, the confidence and enthusiasm they 
have in their station in life and their prospects for the future. 
Mainly what we see on cable TV and on social media is how Congress is 
fraught with divisiveness and burdened by partisan politics that 
paralyzes us from getting anything done. We see this narrative splashed 
across headlines and picked apart on cable news shows.
  When I go back home, I find that most of my constituents aren't 
particularly concerned with who is up and who is down in the purely 
partisan politics they see going on in the Nation's Capital. They are 
concerned about making their lives and their families' lives better, 
putting food on the table, and enjoying the fruits of their labor. They 
want to see their elected officials likewise doing the same and solving 
the real issues that affect their lives.
  I think it is important to reflect on what this Senate and this 
Congress have been able to do over the last 2 years under this new 
administration. I think our record is pretty clear, and, of course, 
Americans responded by giving us an even greater majority--the 
Republican leadership in the Senate--next Congress.
  In the last 2 years, we promoted policies to foster economic growth 
and job creation and opportunities for all Americans regardless of 
their station in life. By doing that, we made historic gains, and I 
want to mention a few of those now.
  Let's start with the Tax Code--the first time in 31 years the Tax 
Code has been tackled and reformed. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered 
tax rates across the board for every tax bracket, doubled the child tax 
credit, and helped American businesses become more competitive in the 
global economy.
  The savings created by these reforms have been real for Americans 
across the country. They mean an extra tank of gas each month, more 
food on the table, or a month's worth of rent. For parents, they mean 
that textbooks for their kids and school supplies are well within 
financial reach and saving a little bit more for that college education 
is now possible.
  Robert from Wylie, TX, wrote me recently to say that he and his 
daughter have been ``pleasantly surprised'' by the increases in their 
paychecks. Robert said that he ``appreciate[s] the effort put forth by 
the current administration and look[s] forward to more being done to 
help the average American worker.''
  American workers are the ones who have been left behind in the past 
and told to expect the new normal of stagnant economic growth and slow 
wage growth, but they are exactly the ones who are being helped the 
most now by these changes in tax and regulatory policies. It started 
with the tax reform legislation, and I think the regulatory reforms we 
have been able to enact have made a big difference as well.
  The Texas Workforce Commission announced recently that our State hit 
record-low unemployment in October, while the Department of Commerce 
announced that the State's economy grew 6 percent in the second 
quarter. That is a red-hot, growing economy. These were monumental 
leaps forward that were felt in all corners of our State.
  Confidence in the economy across the country is at its highest level 
since 2004; small business owners'--the primary engine of job creation 
in our country--confidence is at record-high levels; and optimism among 
U.S. manufacturers has soared to an alltime high. Is this a 
coincidence? I don't think so. Is this a result of policies produced 
years ago during a previous administration, as some people would claim? 
I don't think so. But we have done some important things on a 
bipartisan basis, together, such as removing some of the burdensome 
Dodd-Frank banking regulations so that we can expand access to capital, 
which means more loan money available for small businesses and families 
and particularly for farmers and the farming community.
  We took important steps to reduce the regulatory burdens on all 
employers and job-seekers alike by giving States the tools to remove 
barriers to certain professions through occupational licensing reform. 
Some of the occupational licensing requirements in our States are 
basically nothing but incumbent protection, trying to freeze out people 
who wanted to learn a new skill, only to learn that it was uneconomical 
to do so or that the licensure requirement made that burden too high.
  We also worked to help provide for our veterans--a noble undertaking 
in and of itself--and those who make the transition from military life 
to civilian life. One bill we passed, called the Jobs for Our Heroes 
Act, makes it easier for veterans to get commercial driver's licenses, 
and the American Law Enforcement Heroes Act makes sure veterans get 
hired by local law enforcement agencies when they come out of the 
military with the very skills that are needed by our police agencies 
that are working to keep our communities safe.
  In each of these cases, we tried to listen to what my constituents 
and our constituents were telling us so we could implement targeted 
changes meant to improve the lives of the people we are honored to 
represent.
  Particularly around Thanksgiving but year-round, I am reminded of how 
grateful I am for the sacrifices made by those who have served our 
country in the past and those who presently wear the uniform of the 
U.S. military. Many times, they are the very ones who spend their 
holidays deployed overseas in places far away from their families.
  I am proud of the historic effort we have made on a bipartisan basis 
to provide support to those who are currently serving our country and 
those who have previously served. That started with the Veterans' 
Administration, which was past due for reforms. This is an immense 
bureaucracy of more than I believe 330,000 employees. We needed to pull 
that agency into the 21st century to better serve the veterans under 
its charge.
  I am sure GEN Omar Bradley, who led the VA after World War II, would 
not recognize the system in place today, what we have transformed the 
VA into, but he would have recognized it as it previously existed 
because it basically was the same system that had been in place since 
World War II. Now we have taken important steps, such as passing the 
historic VA MISSION Act, which modernized the veterans' appeals process 
and the electronic healthcare system. We reformed veterans' healthcare 
benefits and improved accountability within the VA, and we provided the 
largest funding increase in history for veterans' care and services.
  When it comes to other institutions that help provide safety and 
security for the American people, we were able to provide for the men 
and women of the Coast Guard with bipartisan support. Our bill ensures 
that the Coast Guard can continue to protect our ports, stop illegal 
drugs from reaching our borders, and save lives.
  Earlier this year, we made the greatest investment in our military in 
history with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for 
the 58th consecutive year. This was appropriately named for our friend 
and colleague Senator John McCain. The Defense bill supports our men 
and women in uniform by providing the tools and resources they need to 
keep our country safe and includes the largest boost to servicemembers' 
pay in 10 years.
  It is especially noteworthy that this year will mark the first time 
in about a decade that the Defense Department will not operate under a 
temporary spending measure, known as a continuing resolution. That is 
important. Because of bipartisan support, we have funded roughly 75 
percent of the government so far--we still have more to do--on time and 
through regular order. In fact, we passed the most on time 
appropriations bills in 22 years.
  In addition to these historic strides, we also passed landmark 
legislation to combat the drug addiction crisis that has plagued every 
corner of the country. This bill is designed to help stem the tide of 
drugs flooding across our borders but also help those who are suffering 
from drug addiction get the recovery support they need. We also 
continued to support communities by passing first-of-its-kind 
legislation to make our schools safer and stop online sex trafficking.
  I think each one of these successes is worthy of mention because the 
legislative record of this current Congress--this 115th Congress--is 
pretty remarkable, one of the most productive since

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my time in the Senate. It has meant unprecedented victories for 
American workers and families and communities, as well as our 
servicemembers. We still have a mission, though--we need to finish out 
the 115th Congress as strong as we began it, and we only have a few 
weeks left to do that. That starts by continuing our historic pace of 
confirming the President's judicial nominees, which already total more 
than 80, with 2 Supreme Court Justices confirmed in the 115th Congress 
in the last 2 years.
  In the coming weeks, we will continue our work on the farm bill to 
provide support for our Nation's ag community. In my home State, one 
out of seven working Texans gains their income from working in the 
agriculture sector. Everyone has heard the saying ``Thank a farmer 
three times a day.'' It is the farmers and ranchers in the Lone Star 
State whom I think of when I hear that. Texans know as well as anybody 
the unpredictability of Mother Nature, which can ruin a crop or an 
entire season in the blink of an eye. That is why passing a farm bill 
is important--to give our farmers and ranchers the predictability and 
the certainty they need and deserve insofar as we can since we can't 
control Mother Nature.
  As you can see, we have our work cut out for us in these remaining 
weeks. I mentioned earlier that Americans chose to send Senate 
Republicans back to Washington with an even greater majority, but 
Americans also chose a Democratic majority in the House of 
Representatives. Leader McConnell recently called the Senate ``fertile 
soil for bipartisan work,'' and that is true. It is the way the Senate 
is constructed and built with our unique rules when it comes to 
considering and voting on legislation. We are ripe for the 
possibilities of solving some of the biggest legislative question marks 
facing our government and facing our Nation.

  But now our friends in the House, with Democratic majorities, need to 
make a choice. They can either choose to make noise or they can choose 
to join us in making law and improving the lot of American citizens.
  I am confident of what we will choose on this side of the aisle 
because we will do exactly as we have done over the last 2 years--
continue to make substantial progress for the American family.
  But we will want to make sure that we extend a hand to our Democratic 
colleagues in the House, and they can make their decision, I hope, to 
join us in continuing to make progress on the part of the American 
people and not just create more chaos and confusion and accentuate the 
divisiveness that we know already plagues our political system and our 
country.
  It is important that we in Congress demonstrate that we are up to the 
challenge and that we are worthy of the trust of the people we 
represent--the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.