[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10473-10476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     WORKING TOGETHER IN THE SENATE

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the progress of the 
Senate under the new Republican leadership. In the first 6 months of 
this Congress, we have passed bipartisan, commonsense legislation that 
has delivered meaningful results to the American people.
  As we work to return the Senate to regular order--and that has not 
been an easy thing--we are rebuilding this institution's reputation as 
the world's greatest deliberative body, something that it has not been 
over the last number of years. To that end, we have renewed our 
commitment to the open amendment process and the committee system, 
which give all Members--from the most seasoned chairman to the 
freshman--a hand in drafting and improving legislation.
  The progress we have made is remarkable, especially considering the 
difficult situation we inherited. At the end of the 113th Congress, 
partisan grandstanding and festering dysfunction had tarnished this 
body's reputation. This Senate was beset by gridlock and weak 
leadership more focused on political messaging than constructive 
legislation. At the end of the 2014, Congress had a historically low 
approval rating of only 9 percent and, in many respects, the way the 
Congress was being run, we deserved it. Americans had every reason to 
disapprove of what was going on. These persistent low approval ratings 
reflected the American people's frustration with their Federal 
Government and the direction of our

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country under the failed policies and leadership of the President and 
his party.
  Under our new leadership, we are working to regain the trust of the 
American people. Already, the Senate has taken up and passed nearly 40 
pieces of bipartisan legislation, and our extensive efforts to restore 
confidence in the legislative branch are beginning to bear fruit. 
Consider our legislative accomplishments thus far.
  At the beginning of this Congress, Republicans and Democrats came 
together to pass the Hoeven-Manchin bill to authorize the unreasonably 
delayed Keystone XL Pipeline.
  We also passed my Amy and Vicky act, a bill I authored to create an 
effective, balanced restitution process for victims of child 
pornography. Others deserve lots of credit on that bill.
  In a bipartisan manner, Republican leaders cooperated with Democrats 
to repeal and replace Medicare's sustainable growth rate. Instead of 
resorting to patch after patch, year after year--that is what we had 
been doing here for so long; that is really a tremendous achievement--
we came together to work out a balanced package that both protects 
seniors and includes important cost controls. It demonstrated the scope 
of what Congress can do when Members work together, and it represented 
an important step forward in reforming our Nation's entitlement 
programs. With regard to that, we paired it with the CHIP bill, which 
was the Hatch-Kennedy bill for young children who were left out of the 
health care system, and that passed too.
  We built on this positive momentum when the Senate passed the Cornyn-
Klobuchar human trafficking bill--a very important bill. With this 
legislation, Congress established a special fund providing victims of 
human trafficking the resources they need to repair their shattered 
lives.
  This bill suffered a number of hiccups along the way. Yet ultimately 
we were able to come together in a collaborative fashion to overcome 
our differences.
  We again bridged the partisan divide when we passed the Iran Nuclear 
Agreement Review Act--a monumental piece of legislation. This 
legislation ensures Congress's right to oversee any agreement the 
President reaches with Iranian leaders and reasserts the Senate's 
valuable role in approving international treaties. Despite our 
divergent opinions on the Obama administration's negotiation efforts, 
we were able to devise a compromise that earned the support of nearly 
every Senator.
  These are not small achievements. It is amazing we have been able to 
do so many in these first 6 months. Just last week, we worked together, 
yet again, in a bipartisan fashion to pass the National Defense 
Authorization Act, reauthorizing important defense programs critical to 
our national security--a complex and very difficult bill to handle. And 
no less than our wonderful Senator from Arizona, Mr. McCain, handled 
that matter on the floor, along with the help of a lot of others.
  In passing this legislation, our new majority did not run roughshod 
over the minority. Rather, we collaborated with our colleagues in the 
minority to draft legislation agreeable to both sides.
  Our bipartisan work hasn't been limited to this Chamber. We have also 
worked closely with the White House to pass trade legislation critical 
to our country's economic future. In fact, just a short while ago, the 
President called me and thanked me. His top Chief of Staff Denis 
McDonough called me yesterday and thanked me--something that, frankly, 
I was very grateful for.
  In fact, yesterday's passage of trade promotion authority might be 
the strongest evidence to date that the Senate is back to work on 
behalf of the American people. This bipartisan piece of legislation is 
one of the President's highest trade priorities because it supports 
U.S. job growth, boosts American exports, enhances our ability to 
negotiate trade agreements, and makes our goods and services more 
competitive globally. TPA will give the United States viable pathways 
to enter into critical trade agreements with our international partners 
to level the playing field for American exporters, creating and 
sustaining more and better paying American jobs.
  Beyond the content of our legislation, the Senate's return to regular 
order and an open amendment process is remarkable. At times, it has 
been difficult to make progress in restoring the Senate as an 
institution, and the consideration of complex legislation can be a slow 
and arduous process. Nonetheless, this body has been deliberate and 
thoughtful in our consideration of legislation. Often, these bills have 
been considered for several weeks and occupied many hours of valuable 
floor time. These bills have required dozens of amendments to be 
considered before they were ultimately put before the Senate for a vote 
on final passage. Though this process is difficult and often laborious, 
it is the way things should be done.
  I have had friends on the other side of the floor come to me and say: 
This is wonderful. We are able to have amendments again. We are able to 
do the work of the Senate again. We feel good about it, and they feel 
good about doing the bipartisan work that we have done.
  The Presiding Officer did an awful lot of good bringing the Hoeven 
bill through, and we can name so many others. There are great people on 
the other side who have cooperated. With regard to that, I think of 
Senator Wyden, who has worked very hard and very closely with me on a 
number of bills but especially the trade promotion authority bill, 
which is the key bill to enable this administration to enter into good 
agreements with foreign countries that are important to us. Without 
that bill, we wouldn't have these agreements. We may still not have 
them, unless they are done right, but at least we can say we have given 
the administration the opportunity to do it right.
  Now, in spite of our successes so far in this Congress, there are 
still many who oppose and criticize our efforts to restore the Senate 
to its proper function. The minority leader might be foremost among 
these detractors. I wish to take just a moment to respond to some of 
his sharp criticisms. In recent remarks, the Democratic leader has 
willfully ignored the significant achievements of the current Congress, 
even arguing the Republican-led Senate has done nothing to help the 
American people. The minority leader's accusation is patently false. He 
lobs these criticisms to distract the American people from his failed 
leadership in the last Congress.
  I happen to like the minority leader. He is my friend. I care for 
him. But there is no excuse for that kind of language on the floor of 
the Senate. I have to say he has cooperated and helped do some of these 
bills. He ought to be taking credit for it rather than lobbing jabs 
from across the aisle.
  Contrary to the claims of the minority leader, the current Republican 
leadership has been remarkably successful at doing exactly what Leader 
McConnell promised we would do: pass legislation that improves the 
economy, makes it easier for Americans to get jobs, and helps restore 
Americans' confidence in their country and government. Importantly, the 
majority leader has kept his promise of restoring the proper role of 
the Senate by enhancing deliberation on legislation through an open and 
robust committee and floor amendment process.
  To appreciate fully the success of the new Congress, we need only to 
review the failures of the past. As we all remember too well, under the 
tight-fisted control of the Democratic leader, the Senate, in all of 
2014, was only allowed to take a total of 17 rollcall votes on 
amendments--17 rollcall votes on amendments in an entire year. Some of 
the Democratic Senators who were defeated had never brought up an 
amendment on the floor of the Senate. They didn't have that privilege. 
They didn't have that remarkable experience.
  The Democratic leader shut down the amendment process by abusing 
procedural mechanisms and dismantled the rights of the minority in this 
Chamber. This dysfunction lies in stark contrast to the way Leader 
McConnell is leading the Senate today. Under the new

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majority leader, we have made progress that is tangible, even 
measurable. Just look at the facts: In the 6 months of 2015, the Senate 
has taken over 130 rollcall votes on amendments.
  In other words, the Senate has taken more than seven times as many 
rollcall votes on amendments in the first 6 months of this year than 
the current majority leader allowed in all of last year. It is worth 
noting that a majority of the rollcall votes taken this year have been 
on amendments introduced by Democrats. A majority of the rollcall votes 
taken this year have been on amendments by our friends on the other 
side. They haven't been blocked. This is powerful evidence that the 
Republican-led Senate is committed to working in a manner respectful of 
the minority's voice.
  Additionally, we have considered and agreed to 183 amendments this 
year. That means we have agreed to nearly four times as many amendments 
in the first 6 months of this year than we did in the first 6 months of 
the last Congress. I am pleased the Senate has largely returned to 
operating under regular order with increased deliberation and an open 
and robust floor consideration process. The bottom line is that this 
increased transparency and deliberation has greatly benefited the work 
of Senators on both sides of the aisle.
  That said, I think we can all agree the Senate has a lot more work to 
do. I am hopeful we can capitalize on our recent success by continuing 
to tackle difficult issues, such as sustaining the highway trust fund, 
working toward comprehensive tax reform, and improving our Nation's 
cyber security. These are important bills and we have to work on them. 
As we work together to find solutions to these problems, I urge my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to practice the principle of 
mutual restraint.
  Senator Mike Mansfield, the longtime Democratic Senate majority 
leader, and a wonderful man whom I knew, counseled that the remedy to 
partisan gridlock in the Senate ``lies not in the seeking of shortcuts, 
not in the cracking of nonexistent whips, not in wheeling and dealing, 
but in an honest facing of the situation and a resolution of it by the 
Senate itself, by accommodation, by respect for one another, [and] by 
mutual restraint.''
  Now, both parties must make certain sacrifices in order for the 
Senate to function. The majority leadership must generally refrain from 
bringing divisive and partisan messaging bills before the Senate for 
consideration and should seek to gather bipartisan support through a 
consensus. Mutual restraint also requires in most cases the majority 
leadership to allow legislation to be thoroughly vetted by the 
committee of jurisdiction and to allow for an open amendment process, 
which provides an opportunity for all Senators to contribute to the 
Chamber's work.
  I remember how the ObamaCare bill was formulated. It was formulated 
not in the committee of jurisdiction, where we had all those people 
with all that experience; it was done with the White House, in a small 
room with just a few Senators who decided this monumental bill--passed 
only with Democratic support--that we are now all subject to. That bill 
has been anything but a success. Now, I have to say, all Senators 
should be able to contribute to the Chamber's work.
  This duty is not incumbent upon the majority alone. The minority also 
has to practice restraint, including resisting impulses to filibuster 
routine unanimous consent requests and insisting on poison pill 
amendments. The minority in the Senate has powerful rights that can be 
used to grind the work of the Senate to a halt, but the minority should 
not abuse those rights. At times, it can be appropriate for the 
minority to utilize all of the procedural mechanisms at their disposal 
to legitimately and judiciously disagree with a serious policy being 
considered by the Senate. However, when the minority deliberately 
frustrates the operation of the Senate for partisan gain, it is an 
offense to the institution--and I say that with regard to both sides.
  My friend the majority leader has been committed to conducting the 
Senate's consideration of legislation in a deliberate manner, with 
prudence and restraint. He has renewed and enhanced deliberation and 
open consideration of serious policy proposals. We have not made a 
point of pushing Republican messaging bills, but rather we have worked 
hard to find broad bipartisan consensus. Although it has not been easy 
by any means, I feel confident the American people are beginning to 
regain confidence in the legislative branch as it is being led today 
under Republican leadership.
  We still have a long way to go before we can restore the full 
confidence and trust of the American people--at least that is my 
viewpoint--but we are really once again moving the country in the right 
direction. This Senate is a dramatic improvement from the way business 
has been conducted over the past several years. We are not focused on 
scoring cheap political points but are deliberating serious policy and 
legislation aimed at meaningful reform.
  The Senate, under Republican leadership, has passed bipartisan 
legislation that will improve the lives of all Americans. We are doing 
the right kind of work, and we are doing it the right way. We are not 
focused on political gimmicks and pageantry; rather, we are interested 
in real, substantive policy aimed at strengthening the Nation, our 
economy, and our national security. We have made significant progress, 
and we continue to work together to restore our reputation as the 
world's greatest deliberative body.
  In the Finance Committee alone, as of yesterday we have passed 36 
bipartisan bills out of that committee, which wasn't really allowed to 
function during the last number of years. It was so bad that Senator 
Coburn left it. He said we are not getting anything done. Frankly, we 
weren't. A lot of that was because of the way the Senate was being led 
at that particular time.
  I am pleased to say I think the Finance Committee is restoring itself 
as the greatest deliberative committee on Capitol Hill, certainly in 
the Senate.
  In that regard, it has been a privilege to work with Paul Ryan over 
in the House. In all of our meetings, there has never been any real 
push to be partisan. It is to get the job done, to do it the best way 
we possibly can, to involve our brethren and sisters on the other side, 
and to make sure our side does what really ought to be done in our 
respective bodies.
  We are going to have tie-ups in the future, I know, but it was 
getting so it was in every way. And I suspect there were sincere 
motives in doing that, in trying to protect the then-majority's side 
before this year. I understand that. But it went way too far, and it 
was not the way to run the Senate.
  We all know Senator McConnell is a strong, tough, intelligent, 
complete Senator and certainly majority leader. That can irritate some 
people who don't look at the real facts and don't look at what he 
really stands for and what he is really trying to do. But I have found 
him to be fair. I have found him to be fair and deliberate and somebody 
you can work with as long as you are working in good faith.
  I would like to see both of our leaders work in good faith so we can 
do things for our country first and quit worrying so much about who is 
going to run the Senate for the next couple of years or who is going to 
win or who is going to get the big headline. Let's worry about running 
the country in the proper way. To do that, it takes both sides, not 
just one side, and it takes a deliberative process that elevates the 
Senate again to the greatest deliberative body in the world. We can do 
it.
  I caution both leaders to do everything in their power to see that we 
do work together as much as we can. When we fight, let's have real good 
fights, but let's do it over substantive things, not just deliberated 
procedural matters.
  But the fact is that we have done quite a bit in these first 6 
months. The leader has done a great job in getting us there, and we 
have had a lot of help from our friends on the other side. I want to 
keep that system going so we can do even better.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant minority leader.

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