[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19309]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WORK OF THE SENATE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Republican leader comes to the floor 
virtually every day and talks about this great new Senate.
  He talked about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We tried 
to do that many times. It was blocked by Republicans. That is why it 
was not done before.
  Highways. We tried valiantly to do something on highways, but all we 
could ever get, because of the obstruction of the Republicans, was 
short-term extensions.
  Cyber security. My friend the Republican leader comes to the floor 
and talks about, we got cyber security done. We got it done. It is not 
a great bill. It is better than nothing. But we tried for years--5 
years. Every time we tried, it was blocked by Republicans.
  One of the newspapers here has a Pinocchio check. They look at the 
facts and analyze them, and they can give up to four Pinocchios, 
meaning people simply did not tell the truth.
  So I want to remind everybody here that I am happy to participate in 
getting something done with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 
led by, on our side, the senior Senator from Washington. We were able 
to get that done because of her good work and others. It was not 
because we did not try before. We could not get it done before because 
of the obstruction of the Republicans.
  This is the most unproductive Senate in the history of the country, 
and there are facts and figures to show that. So we are not going to be 
awarding Pinocchios here based on the statements of my friend the 
Republican leader, but everyone should understand there are different 
ways of presenting the facts. It is always best to present facts that 
are accurate. He said, for example, that bills--TSA, highways, and 
cyber--languished in the Senate. That is true, because of Republican 
filibusters. We tried to pass those bills in the last two Congresses. 
They were blocked by Republicans. We are now helping pass legislation, 
and that is our job. The job of Republicans was to oppose everything 
President Obama wanted, and that is, in fact, what was done.

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