[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8064-8065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING SENATOR ROUNDS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, let me say to our colleague from 
South Dakota how much all of us enjoyed his first major speech and also 
congratulate him on focusing on what I think is the single biggest 
problem confronting our country, creating the slow growth rate we have 
had throughout the Obama Presidency.
  The Senator from South Dakota has focused on the biggest drag on our 
economy, the single biggest thing holding this country back from 
reaching its potential, and I would say to my friend from South Dakota 
that he has picked the perfect subject and has laid out a good solution 
to it. I hope lots of colleagues on both sides of the aisle will rally 
around this excellent proposal as a good way forward in dealing with 
the single biggest domestic problem we have regarding the future growth 
of our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I, too, wish to congratulate my colleague 
from South Dakota, Senator Rounds, because he has already been a great 
leader on this subject. As a successful two-term Governor, a leader in 
our State legislature, he was a practical, commonsense, down-to-earth 
Governor who just liked to get things done.
  I think coming here to Washington, DC, and finding the massive 
bureaucracy--in some cases, dysfunction--that surrounds this city, 
there can be a lot of disillusionment at times for people across the 
country. I think the new

[[Page 8065]]

Senator from South Dakota is going to be a great voice, a clear voice 
on solutions for how to break through that. He will be a great partner 
and someone I look forward to continuing to work with. We worked 
together a lot during his time as Governor and while in the State 
legislature, but I am delighted he is here in the Senate, where he can 
take his skills and experience and the passion he has to bring about 
positive change for our country and put it to work on behalf of the 
people of South Dakota and the people of our country.
  I look forward to working with him on the very issue he talked about 
today because there is probably nothing right now that has a greater 
economic impact and creates more economic harm for the people we 
represent in South Dakota than regulatory overreach. This is evidenced 
on an almost daily basis as new regulations emanate from various 
agencies around this town that make it more difficult and more 
expensive for people to create jobs, more difficult for farmers and 
ranchers and small business people to do the things they do best, and 
just create a higher burden, a higher level of harm for people across 
the State because everything that comes out of Washington, DC, that 
drives up the cost of doing business in this country gets passed on to 
consumers in our State and all across the country.
  I congratulate the Senator from South Dakota on his remarks and am 
grateful for his great service to our State in so many ways already and 
now adding to that here as a Member of the Senate, where we have big 
problems, big challenges, but he meets that with not only big 
enthusiasm but big experience when it comes to knocking down these 
barriers and making it more possible for people in this country to live 
more prosperous lives, safer lives, and hopefully more fulfilled lives 
when they can get government out of the way and allow their greatest 
aspirations to surface.
  So I hope we have the opportunity to deal with a lot of those issues 
and do it in a way that creates greater prosperity for people across 
South Dakota and across this country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, let me observe that after hearing all 
the Senator from South Dakota said and what his goals are, he sure 
chose the right committee, the committee I chair, the Environment and 
Public Works Committee. That is what we talk about. That is what we do.
  I had the honor of being in South Dakota before the election, and as 
I walked around in South Dakota and looked around, I thought, I could 
just as well be in Oklahoma. While I was there, I talked to the farm 
bureau people there, and they said it is the regulations. That is a 
farm State. Oklahoma is a farm State, and we understand that.
  Of all the regulations they have and the problems they have, they say 
the EPA overregulates and causes the greatest problems. They singled 
one out--endangered species. They singled another one out--the waters 
of the United States. Currently, we are doing legislation on the waters 
of the United States, and it is legislation that is going to get that 
burden off of the people from South Dakota and Oklahoma. Right now, we 
are considering the most expensive of all the regulations, which is the 
ozone regulations. It would constitute the greatest single increase in 
expenditures or taxes of anything in the history of this country.
  So it is nice to know we have someone who is so committed to the 
goals of this committee to be singling this out in a maiden speech as 
his greatest concern. I appreciate that as the chairman of that 
committee, and we are going to do wonderful things together for South 
Dakota, Oklahoma, and America.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning 
business for up to 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________