[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 169 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this anniversary also reminds us of 
how many urgent issues are crying out for substantive, bipartisan, 
bicameral cooperation for the good of the American people.
  I am talking about funding our Armed Forces and the Department of 
Defense, just as both sides agreed to do back in the summer when we 
signed on to a bipartisan, bicameral budget agreement that Democrats 
have lately sort of wandered away from--just wandered right away from 
it.
  I am talking about passing the USMCA, the most consequential update 
to North American trade policy in a generation, which Speaker Pelosi 
has put on ice in order to move Democrats' impeachment obsession to the 
front burner, despite the fact that there are 176,000 new American jobs 
on the line if we pass the USMCA.
  The needs of the American people have not been put on pause just 
because Washington Democrats have decided it doesn't suit them to get 
along with the White House.
  My friends in Democratic leadership insist over and over that their 
focus on undoing the 2016 election will not keep them from the 
substantive legislation that American families need. Well, our Armed 
Forces are still waiting for their funding; our workers and small 
businesses are still waiting on their new trade agreement.
  Our Senate Democratic colleagues have enough time to push partisan 
resolutions, such as their effort yesterday to enact a new tax cut--
listen to this--their effort yesterday to enact a new tax cut for 
wealthy people in blue States, like New York and New Jersey, at the 
expense of working families everywhere else.
  But so far we have seen little--little--indication that they are 
really ready to put our differences aside and come to the table on 
significant bipartisan subjects that can actually become law.
  I worry that something like the landmark opioid package that we are 
celebrating today would not have moved through the Congress today, just 
one year later. I worry it would have been another victim of Democrats' 
decision to avoid working with Republicans and the White House on 
basically anything, to keep all of their focus trained on impeachment.
  I hope I am mistaken. I hope we make real progress soon. The American 
people are waiting on us.

                          ____________________