[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28345-28346]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       FUNCTIONING OF THE SENATE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, when the Constitution was written, 
Thomas Jefferson was away in France. He wrote George Washington asking 
him to explain the function of the Senate. Jefferson understood the 
role of the House to be a place of great passion and quick reaction, 
but he wasn't quite sure what this Senate was going to be like. So 
Washington used a Southern analogy of drinking tea, where folks in 
those days would pour the hot tea down into the saucer, let it cool, 
and then pour it back into the cup.
  Washington suggested that the Senate was the cooling saucer--a place 
where things cooled off--of this new Federal Government they were 
creating, where the heated passions that might bubble over could cool 
down. That is the way the Senate has worked for over 200 years. I 
suggest it is unworthy of the Senate when those in it, Members of the 
Senate, fail to heed to the role of this body, which is to provide 
cool, reasoned, and less passionate judgment as we do the people's 
business.
  Recently, we have heard the venting of frustration by leaders on the 
minority side. Callow, petulant characterizations have been directed at 
our leader, such as ``amateur.'' Someone on the Senate floor referred 
to the Republican leader last week as ``amateur'' and used the term 
``mismanagement.''
  Well, Mr. President, in addition to that being quite unsenatorial, 
let us recall that this leader is laboring under a one-vote margin, 
just as the last leader had to endure. Given that same burden, it might 
be appropriate and timely to compare the hard facts.
  Those hard facts deal with the passage of bills through the Senate. 
With the same one-vote majority, Senator Frist has pushed 10 
appropriations bills across the Senate floor while last year's 
leadership delivered only 3. That is over three times as many 
appropriations bills through the Senate in this year compared to last 
year.
  Now, the 11th bill has been the subject of a filibuster, and the 
remaining 2

[[Page 28346]]

should be dealt with this week. Again, last year, three appropriations 
bills moved through the Senate--the worst record in at least two 
decades.
  Let me repeat that, Mr. President. Last year only three 
appropriations bills made it through the Senate, the worst record in at 
least two decades.
  Let's look at bills signed into law. With the same one-vote majority 
as the other side had last year, Senator Frist has delivered six 
appropriations bills into law. Last year only two were delivered.
  Using the terms employed by the Democratic leadership, delivering 
just two appropriations bills into law is the worst Senate management 
record in 16 years. Let me repeat, Mr. President. Delivering just two 
bills into law, which is what happened last year, is the worst Senate 
management record in 16 years.
  This year and last year, with the same one-vote majority, Senator 
Frist has just done his job in funding the Government for this year. He 
did the job of last year's leadership by passing last year's funding 
bills back in January. What is amateur, to use the Democratic 
leadership's terminology, is not doing your job and blaming someone 
else. That is what is amateur, not doing your job and blaming someone 
else.
  With a one-vote margin, this leader passed a budget, a jobs package, 
a prescription drug benefit for seniors, a global AIDS bill with record 
funding, established the Department of Homeland Security, and is 
completing the appropriations bills. That is the record of this leader, 
Senator Frist.
  Mr. GREGG. Will the Senator from Kentucky yield for a question?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I will yield for a question.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, the Senator mentioned the budget. As I 
recall, no budget was passed under the prior leadership in the prior 
year for the first time in--I don't know how long. Isn't it appropriate 
to pass a budget of the Government, and didn't the Republican leader 
pass that budget with a one-vote majority where it was not passed in 
the prior Congress?
  Mr. McCONNELL. The Senator from New Hampshire is entirely correct. 
Last year is the first year since the Budget Act was passed when the 
Senate didn't pass a budget. Last year, the leadership--I was about to 
get into that--didn't pass a budget and failed to enact all but two of 
the appropriations bills. They had plenty of time and energy to 
complain about jobs, and they did nothing about them.
  The results are very different this year. We passed a jobs program, 
and today more Americans are at work than any time in U.S. history, a 
record 138 million jobs. This new leadership stands in sharp contrast 
to the past leadership.
  Last year, the old leadership stalled desperately needed legislation 
on homeland security. For months, they could not decide whether to 
reduce or increase the President's power to fight terrorism. It took an 
election to break that deadlock. To use the Democratic leadership's 
words, it took the American people to say that amateur hour was over, 
and that is what the American people said a year ago.
  These are the facts of leadership. When the margin of the majority is 
the same but the record of accomplishment is so different, the answer 
can only be leadership. A one-vote majority this year versus a one-vote 
majority last year, and I would argue the big difference is the 
leadership of Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader.
  I don't believe these types of attacks help in any way to advance the 
important business of the American people, the business they, in fact, 
elected us to do. The people want results, not name calling. We need to 
focus on the job, stop hurling epithets, stop the blame game, and 
instead complete the work the American people sent us here to do.
  We all know that the last 2 weeks of this session are going to have 
ample opportunity for tension and disagreement. We have probably been 
together about as long as we ought to be this year, but the job is 
going to be finished by November 21, and it would be a lot easier if we 
could keep our rhetoric in check and not say things in the passion of 
the moment that we subsequently regret.
  Much work remains to be done. We intend to accomplish the major tasks 
remaining for this year prior to Thanksgiving, and we are well on our 
way to doing that.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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