[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 2 (Monday, January 5, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, 2025 was a historically busy year here in 
the U.S. Senate: the longest session period in more than 15 years; the 
greatest number of votes in half a century; many, many, many hours in 
session, substantially exceeding the average of the past 78 years.
  What do we have to show for all of that? More than 400 Presidential 
nominees confirmed, far exceeding the totals of the first year of 
President Trump's first term and of President Biden's; repeal of a 
number of burdensome Biden rules and regulations, including multiple 
rules that would have driven up prices for American families and 
businesses; legislation to combat the fentanyl epidemic; to keep 
criminal illegal immigrants off our streets; to create the first U.S. 
Federal framework for stablecoins and ensure U.S. leadership in 
financial innovation; and first and foremost, of course, we passed the 
Working Families Tax Cut and the rest of our landmark legislation.
  January 1 was this past Thursday. If Democrats had their way, 
Americans would have been facing a big tax hike at the start of this 
year. Instead, thanks to the Working Families Tax Cut, Americans will 
continue to pay the lower tax rates Republicans passed in 2017. And 
that is not all.
  In addition to making permanent the tax relief we passed in 2017, 
Republicans have added a number of new tax relief measures to ensure 
that Americans can keep more of their hard-earned money. We further 
increased the standard deduction. We further increased the child tax 
credit and indexed it to inflation so that its value will never go 
down. We added a new bonus deduction for seniors, no tax on tips and 
overtime, and the list goes on.
  Thanks to our legislation, Americans will be able to keep more of 
their hard-earned money permanently, and that is not all our 
legislation did. Our once-in-a-generation legislation also invested in 
our national security, in a more secure border, and safer streets.
  We repealed Democrats' natural gas tax and took steps to unleash 
American energy production to ensure Americans have a stable and 
affordable energy supply and more.
  Our goal for 2025 was more money in Americans' pockets, new 
opportunities, and safer streets. We are accomplishing that with the 
Working Families Tax Cuts and the rest of our landmark legislation, and 
we will continue to expand on that work in 2026.
  There are a number of bills that I would like the Senate to take up, 
including ROAD to Housing--legislation that addresses housing 
affordability and availability--and market structure legislation that 
builds on the success of the GENIUS Act and provides long-overdue 
clarity on digital asset regulation.
  Our first item of business, though, is appropriations. We still have 
work to do to get as many full-year appropriations bills as possible 
across the finish line for fiscal year 2026. I made it very clear when 
I became majority leader that I wanted to get the Senate back to 
regular-order appropriations, and we made a strong start last year, 
passing three appropriations bills with robust bipartisan margins 
before the August work period--the first time that we have passed an 
appropriations bill that early since 2018.
  Unfortunately, Democrats then chose to shut down the government, 
which seriously delayed our appropriations work. But we got right back 
to it after Democrats finally agreed to reopen the government, and we 
were able to get those three appropriations bills signed into law by 
the President this fall.
  Now we have another bipartisan, bicameral package of three bills that 
was released today and is ready to move through the House and the 
Senate. That will be the priority as soon as this package comes over 
from the House, and Senators can expect continued work on 
appropriations for the remainder of January.
  We have a January 30 deadline to fund the government, and nobody 
should want a repeat of the recent Democrat shutdown at the end of this 
month. So let's get the rest of this year's appropriations bills done 
so we can turn our attention to our other responsibilities and to 
getting the next fiscal year's appropriations bills done in a timely 
fashion.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant 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.

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