[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14394-14395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NEVADA ELECTION RESULTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there were a number of bright spots on 
election day, but I have to say, without any question, that the one for 
us was in Nevada. We scored victories everyplace.
  The Koch brothers came to the State and publicly said: Reid has been 
hard on us, and we are going to teach him a lesson. I wasn't born 
yesterday. I knew. They really didn't frighten me.
  In spite of all their untold wealth, they could not affect what we 
had built up over the years in Nevada. We carried the State by about 
30,000 votes for Hillary Clinton, which maybe in California it doesn't 
sound like a lot, but in South Carolina and Nevada it is a lot of 
votes--30,000 votes.
  In the Senate seat to replace me, we won by a large margin. We picked 
up two Democratic House seats. Out of the six Democratic House seats 
that were picked up in this past election, a third of them came from 
Nevada. We turned the assembly to a big, big majority. The State senate 
now has 21 members. It was 11-to-10 Republican. It is now 11-10 
Democratic. To make it even better, the day after the election a 
Republican State senator switched to become an Independent, like Bernie 
Sanders and Angus King. So there is a two-vote majority there. It was 
really a good day for Nevada.
  We rejected the divisive vision of America that some had, but we also 
enacted some important reforms. In Nevada--the Wild West, NRA members 
galore--we voted to have background checks. When I went to the State 
legislature a long time ago, in 1969, as a young assemblyman, I 
introduced legislation to have a 3-day waiting period before you can 
buy a gun. That has been longstanding in most of rural Nevada. They 
eliminated that. But I started being concerned about this a long time 
ago, and now in Nevada we are going to have background checks for 
people purchasing guns. That is good. The National Rifle Association 
spent millions of dollars trying to stop that, but we cared more about 
keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people than catering to 
people with special interests.
  I mention the NRA. Listen, the National Rifle Association used to be 
a different organization. After the Columbine horror in Colorado, they 
came out saying that we should do something for background checks. They 
have changed. Members of the NRA in Nevada understand that. They are 
like NRA members all over the country. The majority of NRA members 
believe there should be background checks and

[[Page 14395]]

you shouldn't as a criminal be able to buy a gun or you shouldn't be 
able to buy a gun if you are unstable mentally.
  We elected the first Latina Senator in the history of the country, 
Catherine Cortez Masto. We are a diverse State. I am happy that our 
elected leaders that we brought back here certainly represent that.
  I have talked about Catherine Cortez Masto. She is going to be a 
wonderful Senator. I am so proud of her. I have known her family for 
years. I have admiration for her accomplishments as a prosecutor and 
attorney general for the State. The Nevada seat was a Koch brothers 
prize, but they came in second.
  We also elected Ruben Kihuen. He is a fine man. He is a Mexican 
immigrant elected to the House of Representatives. He will do a good 
job, this young man. I have so much admiration for him. The picture on 
the front page of our papers in Las Vegas was really wonderful. His mom 
and dad, immigrants themselves, with their boy who is now going to be a 
Member of Congress. That is pretty dramatic. They came to the United 
States wanting to live the American dream, and that is what they have 
done.
  Serving with Ruben and serving with Catherine in the Congress is a 
woman by the name of Jacky Rosen. Jacky has been an inspiring community 
leader for years, working as president of her synagogue. Jacky has no 
experience in politics--zero. She ran for a seat that is just a tiny 
bit Democratic, but a very competitive seat. It is a seat that 
Congressman Heck lost for the Senate and held for three terms. She 
didn't have a really long resume, other than being a wonderful person 
who had a great family and was involved in community activities. She 
was president of her synagogue. She proved to be a tremendously 
talented candidate, and she will be good here in Washington as a Member 
of Congress.
  Dina Titus, a longtime Member of Congress, is returning to the House 
for a fourth term. She knows Nevada inside and out. She is a longtime 
member of the State legislature and a professor at UNLV.
  So I am grateful for these good people who are now going to be 
Members of the Congress of the United States. Catherine, Ruben, Jacky, 
and Dina will be great for Nevada and the country.
  Our Democratic legislature in Nevada will be led by an African 
American, Aaron Ford. We have an African American leading the State 
senate. He is the majority leader. He is a wonderful young man who is 
so talented, well educated. He has a Ph.D. and a law degree. He has it 
all.
  Jason Frierson is going to be leading the assembly as speaker. He is 
just a good person, a good guy with an accomplished record in the State 
assembly.
  There has been some talk about ``the Reid machine,'' but, of course, 
the machine is leaving Washington in a few weeks. But it is not about 
me. It is about our State and about the progress we have made over the 
years. The victories we saw last week speak volumes about the talent of 
the candidates and the people working to make sure these victories 
happen. Most of the work done in the State was by volunteers. There 
were thousands of people--thousands of people--out in the streets 2 
weeks before the election.
  On one Saturday, 70,000 doors were knocked on in the small State of 
Nevada--70,000. Having done door-to-door stuff ourselves, we all know 
that there were not 70,000 people home, but thousands and thousands of 
people were reached through that process.
  As I have mentioned, our State has a crop of incredibly talented 
leaders to stand up to the Trump administration and hold Republicans 
accountable. Our new leaders are going to fight for the issues that are 
important to the people of the State of Nevada, all issues dealing with 
immigrants. My father-in-law was an immigrant to the United States from 
Russia. My grandfather was from England. We are going to do everything 
we can to make sure that people understand the importance of 
immigration.
  On Yucca Mountain, they asked me a couple of days ago about the 
Republicans wanting to revive Yucca Mountain. Well, I know the 
Presiding Officer and the Republicans are concerned about money. So if 
the Republicans want to revive Yucca Mountain, bring a great big 
checkbook because what it is going to cost to revive that is not 
millions of dollars but billions of dollars--billions. There is nothing 
there. All the equipment has been junked, ground up. It is where they 
sell junk and metal. It is gone.
  What I say is, if the Republicans want to waste money on that, let 
them do it. Let them do it because it doesn't meet the environmental 
standards of anyplace, let alone our country. So let them try to revive 
it. But I say to my Republican friends, make sure you have a lot of 
money.
  We are going to do everything together in the next few weeks, and 
certainly when I am gone, the new Congressional delegation will do 
everything they can to protect clean energy. We have really done a lot 
with wind, solar, and geothermal. We need to continue that.
  In Nevada, 87 percent of the land is owned by the Federal Government. 
I know that is hard to comprehend. The Presiding Officer is from South 
Carolina. If you come to one of the beautiful wilderness areas, that 
land is not mine. That land is not Nevada land. It is your land. It is 
public land. You have as much right as anyone to enjoy those beautiful 
mountains that we have. We have 314 mountain ranges. We have a mountain 
that is 14,000 feet high. We have 32 mountains over 11,000 feet high. 
These are your mountains, just as they are mine.
  I say to the Presiding Officer, don't be part of a deal to sell those 
public lands to the private sector. The States and local governments--
they cannot protect those lands. So for our children and our 
grandchildren, don't let them mess with public lands.
  I appreciate the Presiding Officer listening to me. I will close by 
saying that I am very proud of what happened in the State of Nevada a 
week ago yesterday.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Toomey). The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, what is the business before the Senate?

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