[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20538-20539]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  WORK OF THE REPUBLICAN-LED CONGRESS

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, often here in Washington, it can be 
difficult to focus on what counts.
  We live in an information environment which is increasingly atomized 
and persistently polarized. Almost all will inevitably focus on who is 
up and who is down in the endless cycle of partisan gamesmanship. News 
cycles come and news cycles go. Poll numbers jump, then fall, then jump 
again, and fall again, but nobody should forget that what really 
matters around here, at the end of the day, is policy, and the first 
year of unified Republican government has delivered plenty of that.
  In 2016, the American people faced a stark choice. The Republicans 
promised a new era of deregulation and limited government--a new policy 
approach that would entrust free markets and free citizens to drive us 
forward. The Democrats, on the other hand, renewed and restated their 
faith in the effectiveness of government, centered here in Washington, 
to direct and command the national welfare. The American people spoke 
loudly, and they spoke decisively. The Republicans were given the reins 
and were instructed to sort all of this out.
  Nobody needs to remind me that elections are the beginning of the 
challenge, not the end. The Republicans may have prevailed in the 
campaign, but an election won is nothing more than an opportunity 
seized. It is nothing more than a charge to carry out the promises 
offered on the trail, and that is precisely what we are doing.
  Here in the Senate, despite fits and starts, we are moving the ball 
forward. Notwithstanding often vicious treatment by the media and the 
constant obstruction of the Democrats here in Congress, we are getting 
work done. Promises made in 2016 have become promises kept in 2017. The 
American people were promised the removal of redtape and infuriating 
bureaucratic encumbrances on economic growth. As soon as we took office 
in early 2017, we moved to do just that.
  We confirmed Neomi Rao as the Administrator of the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs. Under her stewardship, the 
Executive has cut over a dozen old rules for every single new rule 
created. Regulation has been subjected to actual cost-savings analysis, 
and, likely, billions have been saved in the process.
  Here in Congress we passed a dozen CRAs to cut down on costly and 
ineffective rules passed in the twilight hours of the Obama 
administration. The list of deregulatory items speaks for itself: 
restoration of free markets and free competition on internet, done; new 
environmental policy to unleash the potential of American energy 
production, done; reform of public lands designation and renewal of 
State and local control over western territories, done; Labor 
Department reform that restores bargaining power to employees and 
employers rather than unions and bureaucrats, done. On nearly every 
front, from education to justice issues and everything in between, 
there has been substantial progress.
  Personnel are often the catalyst to policy, and we still have 
nominations in several agencies to come. The Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau is in good hands with Mick Mulvaney and will 
eventually be handed off to a capable permanent Director. Federal Trade 
Commission nominations should be arriving shortly, and just recently 
the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously reported the next Director 
of the USPTO, Andrei Iancu. As a longtime champion of intellectual 
property rights, and head of the High-Tech Task Force, I encourage my 
colleagues to swiftly confirm him to this post.
  Overall, this President has delivered on his nominations, and his 
nominees have delivered on his promises. While I am on the topic of 
nominations, I want to talk about the judiciary. Controversy seems to 
be swirling, due to a few recent--and I would say unfortunate--bumps in 
the road, but we must not miss the forest no matter how much the press 
would like to harken on a few of the trees. The accomplishments of this 
administration and Senate in addressing the judiciary have been 
historic.
  Neil Gorsuch was a superb choice for the Supreme Court. At a critical 
juncture for our courts, he stands poised to seize the mantle left by 
Justice Antonin Scalia and carry the cause of originalism and 
textualism forward for a new generation, but Justice Gorsuch was only 
the beginning. From the circuit courts to the district courts, judicial 
nominations across the board have really been outstanding. We have 
confirmed more circuit court nominees this year than in any President's 
first year in American history.
  We accomplished this despite Democrats using their time-tested 
obstruction tactics and even coming up with

[[Page 20539]]

some new ones. They forced us to take 18 cloture votes on judicial 
nominees alone this year, compared to just one cloture vote during the 
first year of all previous Presidents combined. Nevertheless, we got 
the job done. The results will be felt for decades to come.
  Whatever our differences on other issues, conservatives across the 
board heartily approve of the way this administration has handled 
judicial nominations.
  I will continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, as well as Leader McConnell, to confirm these judges. As the 
rest of our agenda gains steam, judicial selection will remain the 
vanguard. There are more judges to come this new year, and we are going 
to keep on confirming them. Each and every week, a new trial or 
appellate court judge will add to the ranks of a rapidly improving 
judiciary.
  Finally, on the legislative front, this administration and Republican 
Congress have just delivered the most consequential and far-reaching 
tax reform package in 30 years. When other administrations and other 
sessions of Congress couldn't get it done, we did. Individuals will see 
their tax rates drop. Businesses, from large corporations that employ 
thousands to small businesses paying passthrough rates, will enjoy new 
capital for investment, expansion, and more. In fact, seemingly to the 
dismay of our Democratic colleagues, businesses are already responding 
to the good news with announcements of bonuses and new ventures, and 
that is just the beginning.
  On top of it all, the individual mandate has been repealed and 
ObamaCare is now firmly on its way out, thank goodness. Despite earlier 
difficulties, we are well on our way toward repeal. As we move toward 
2018, we can look forward to additional policy success on everything 
from entitlements to infrastructure to immigration.
  In conclusion, I don't want to hear anyone claim that this President 
and this Congress have not gotten things done. Promises were made and 
promises were kept. Only a year into things, we are making good on our 
pledge for historic change in Washington.

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