[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DEMOCRATIC AGENDA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, as the Senate headed 
into the June work period, the Democratic leader laid out an agenda 
that was transparently designed to fail, a string of far-left proposals 
that were not intended to become law or to make a difference in the 
lives of the American people. They were designed to fail and provide 
political theater for liberal activists.
  And sure enough, the Senate did reject Democrats' brazen attempt to 
rewrite the rules of American elections, permanently, to their own 
advantage. We did reject their bid to exploit the cause of paycheck 
fairness to fill the pockets of the trial bar. And other radical 
proposals, like the one to impose crushing legal penalties on 
organizations that failed to conform to leftwing social preferences, 
didn't make it to the floor.
  But, let's remember, this was never just about policy. If our 
colleagues actually believed that the substance of their plans were 
viable, they would have submitted more to scrutiny in committee. We 
know how things work in this body when a narrow majority actually wants 
to make a law. That is not what we have actually seen.
  So Senate Democrats weren't out to pass any legislation this month. 
Their designed-to-fail agenda was supposed to indicate that the 
institution of the Senate itself was somehow broken. And on this count, 
our friends across the aisle failed spectacularly.

  See, the Framers designed the upper Chamber, our Chamber, to be a 
proving ground, a place where good ideas would rise to meet high 
standards and bad ones would actually fall flat. So this month our 
Senate colleagues proved that the Senate is working quite well.
  We turned away an underhanded attempt to open American employers to a 
new form of unlimited predatory liability and a hostile takeover of our 
election system. And the whole time, productive work continued on 
bipartisan proposals that are actually--actually--intended to become 
law. From infrastructure to agriculture, many of our colleagues have 
been hard at work demonstrating the right way to go about legislating. 
In the Commerce and EPW Committees, they approved smart legislation 
with wide bipartisan votes. This morning on the floor, we considered 
another bill from Senator Braun that more than half of our colleagues 
actually cosponsored.
  So as we head back to our home States and take time to celebrate our 
Nation's founding, let's double down on efforts like these and leave 
designed-to-fail partisan antics in June.

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