[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12855-12856]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. CORNYN. Just a few moments ago, the Senate passed a piece of 
legislation that some might ask: Well, what is the big deal? The Water 
Resources Development Act--what we call around here WRDA by the 
acronym--this bill is enormously important for States like North 
Dakota, places like Texas that have experienced flooding, in 
particular, but this bill will help us maintain and expand our 
infrastructure related to our most precious natural resource, and that 
is water.
  Like I said, that might sound a little boring, not particularly 
interesting, but it actually has a lot of relevance to every American. 
Like I said last week, this legislation includes provisions that will 
help my constituents in Texas in a number of ways, from drought and 
flood protection to carving out deeper ports to enhance our ability to 
do international trade, but the passage of this bill serves as another 
example of what can happen when the Senate is actually working the way 
it is supposed to.
  I am not going to suggest to you that just because the 2014 election 
gave Republicans the majority in the U.S. Senate that automatically 
made it possible for the Senate to begin functioning again, but the 
fact is, leadership does make a difference. I know it was absolutely 
key to Majority Leader McConnell's agenda that we would actually work 
in the committees to build consensus on legislation, and then they 
would come to the floor and people would have an opportunity to offer 
amendments and other constructive suggestions and we would work until 
we built that consensus and accomplished our goal of passing 
legislation.
  It is worth reminding our colleagues that the Senate, under Senator 
McConnell's leadership, passed the first bicameral budget that we have 
passed since 2009 and the first balanced budget since 2001. Under a 
Republican-led Senate, all 12 appropriations bills were approved by 
their respective subcommittees and by the Appropriations Committee 
itself. As the Presiding Officer knows, the only way that happens is 
for the chair and the ranking member of the appropriate Appropriations 
subcommittee to work together on a bipartisan basis and then work with 
colleagues on the whole Appropriations Committee to come up with 
legislation they will support or that an overwhelming majority--in some 
cases unanimously--of the committee supports.
  This is the first time since 2009 that we have actually seen all 12 
appropriations bills approved by the subcommittees and then by the 
entire Appropriations Committee. That is the good news.
  The bad news is, our Democratic colleagues wouldn't let us proceed 
with actually voting on those appropriations bills to get them done one 
at a time, in a transparent sort of way, where we would be held 
accountable for what we did, and it would be open to the American 
people to see exactly what we were doing.
  The reason we are talking about a continuing resolution this week and 
next is because of the filibuster of the appropriations process. It 
didn't have to be that way. In fact, we were on track to funding the 
government the way we were supposed to, bill by bill. In spite of the 
filibuster on the appropriations bill, we have been able to find 
consensus on a number of other important pieces of legislation. This is 
legislation that will help American families, strengthen our economy, 
and help keep the American people secure. Importantly, these were bills 
that furthered what I believe to be the appropriate philosophy of the 
government; that is, Washington does not always know best, and that 
power needs to be devolved from the Federal Government in Washington 
back down to the States and back down to individual citizens.
  For example, we passed the first major education reform bill since No 
Child Left Behind, a piece of legislation called the Every Student 
Succeeds Act. This bill does exactly what I just described. Under the 
chairmanship and the leadership of Senator Alexander and Ranking Member 
Murray, what this legislation did was it transferred more power with 
regard to public education, K-12, from Washington back to the States 
and back to parents and teachers--people who actually understand best 
what the educational needs of their students are and how to make sure 
they achieve their potential.
  We also passed the first multiyear highway bill since 2005. Why is 
that important? Well, if you come from a fast-growing State like mine, 
a big State, the quality of highways and bridges are pretty darn 
important--not only important to public safety, they are important to 
the environment and they are important for the economy. But this is the 
first time we passed a multiyear highway bill since 2005. As I said, 
this legislation will help us maintain and build our infrastructure so 
we can keep up with economic and population growth and make the most of 
it. It will also provide certainty to our States and communities so 
they can actually plan for the future. As long as we were passing 6-
month or yearlong Transportation bills, there was no way they could do 
long-term planning, which is more efficient and more cost-effective.
  We also have done other important things. We passed trade promotion 
authority--working with the President--that defines the parameters of 
what Congress and the White House would agree to when it comes to trade 
agreements. I know ``trade'' has kind of become a little bit of a dirty 
word lately in Presidential politics, but I can tell you, in my State 
we see the benefits of our international trading ability every day. Six 
million jobs depend on binational trade with Mexico alone, and NAFTA, 
the North American Free Trade Agreement, which basically tied together 
Canada, Mexico, and the United States, has been seen as a very positive 
move and has created a lot of jobs and economic growth.
  We also reauthorized the Federal Aviation Administration--pretty darn 
important if you happen to fly.
  We passed another piece of important legislation called the POLICE 
Act to support our local law enforcement officials and to make sure 
they get the training they need to respond to an active shooter 
situation--something that, sadly, more and more police find themselves 
confronted with these days.
  We also had a tremendous vote--99 to 0--in the Senate on a bill 
called Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. I have said many times 
that sadly the profile of a victim of human trafficking is a girl 
between the ages of 12 and 14 years old, many of whom run away from 
home, only to find themselves living a life of literally modern-day 
slavery. This legislation was designed to make sure there were more 
resources available to help rescue those victims of human trafficking 
and to better equip law enforcement to track down their captors.
  We also passed legislation that promotes a more transparent and open 
government and protects intellectual property rights, just to name a 
few.
  Again, these may seem like small things in isolation, but they 
represent a major change in the way we do business here in the Senate--
actually working together on a bipartisan basis to solve problems and 
to get legislation on the President's desk and have him sign it. Now, 
you won't read very much about that because the news covers conflict. 
That is just the nature of the beast. When we fight like cats and dogs, 
it is all over the newspapers and on the Internet and on TV, but when 
we actually appear to be doing the work the American people sent us 
here to do, frankly, it is not particularly newsworthy, sadly enough.
  We have other important work that is still outstanding as the Senate 
continues to make progress on a conference report on the Energy Policy 
Modernization Act, a bill this Chamber passed months ago thanks to the 
leadership of Senator Murkowski of Alaska

[[Page 12856]]

and Ranking Member Cantwell. We also are close to finishing up our work 
on the National Defense Authorization Act. This is the major defense 
authorization bill that has been passed out of the Senate every year 
for more years than we can remember. Then the work we have to complete 
this week and next is to find a way to keep the government up and 
running and provide resources to communities to fight the Zika virus 
and to prevent the horrific birth defects that unfortunately are part 
of that disease.
  I point out these accomplishments in an effort to just remind our 
colleagues and anybody who happens to be listening that we do try--not 
all the time but most of the time--to put politics aside, to focus on 
results, and to try to do things that benefit the American people.
  I am thankful for the leadership of the majority leader. As I said 
earlier, leadership matters. Senator McConnell has worked hard to try 
to bring bills to the floor that did enjoy bipartisan support and, to 
the extent possible, to make sure everybody had a chance to participate 
in the process. It is that sort of vision and that sort of pragmatism 
which has brought us this record of success. I hope we continue to do 
that in the time we have left between now and the election and then 
when we return after the election to work together. I know it is tough 
work. It is frustrating. But it is worthwhile, and it is worth doing.
  I don't see anybody ready to speak.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business, and the 
Senator is recognized for up to 10 minutes.

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