The record of the Senate this year has been one of great accomplishment, and bipartisan achievements because we worked together to find solutions to help the country move ahead.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor highlighting the bipartisan accomplishments of the Senate during the first half of the year.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“As Senators get ready to head home for the August recess, I think it’s a good time to look back at what we’ve achieved so far this year.
“By any measure, the record of the Senate this year has been one of great accomplishment, and bipartisan achievements because we worked together to find solutions to help the country move ahead.
“Now, with Republicans in charge, the Senate set a very fast pace for the first 100 days of the new Congress.
“We kept up that pace now over the first six months of the Congress.
“And we are going to build on that momentum for the rest of the year– and achieve even greater success on behalf of all Americans.
“Under Majority Leader McConnell, Senate Republicans are now governing – and we are doing it in a bipartisan way, just as we promised.
“The Senate passed the first budget resolution with the House since 2009.
“The Appropriations Committee passed all 12 spending bills for the first time in six years.
“We passed the longest reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund in almost a decade.
“The Senate passed Trade Promotion Authority for the first time since 2002.
“We passed a permanent ‘doc fix’ to prevent Medicare payment cuts after 17 temporary patches since 2002.
“The Senate ended Washington’s test-based education policies by making states responsible and accountable.
“Now, a lot of people in Washington had written about gridlock and they had gotten used to the gridlock when Democrats ran the Senate.
“Now that they are starting to realize that the Senate really is working again, they realize that we can actually get things done.
“Now, that’s not me speaking, Mr. President. That’s what the Bipartisan Policy Center said recently.
“Now, this is a group of former Republican and Democrat members of Congress.
“They came out with their Healthy Congress Index. They did it for the first six months of 2015.
“The headline on their report was: ‘Continued Signs of Life in Congress.’
“Imagine that –signs of life and activity taking place in Congress this year.
“This bipartisan group reported that the total number of days worked is up from previous years – 15 more days work just so far in the first six months of this Senate compared to last year.
“That’s three more weeks of work on the Senate floor than the year before under Harry Reid.
“The Bipartisan Policy Center also said, ‘Congressional committees have been extremely active, reporting a significantly larger number of bills than the previous two congresses.’ That’s because the committees are working again.
“In the first six months of this year we had 102 bills reported out of committees in the Senate – compared to just 69 in the first six months of the last Congress, and just 42 in the Congress before that.
“Now, that’s just through the end of June.
“Our committees have produced even more bills since then.
“Committees are working – and we’re working together – to push out bipartisan bills. Right now, both houses of Congress are in a 60-day period of scrutinizing the Iran nuclear agreement.
“We’re able to do that because the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act had unanimous support in the Foreign Relations Committee – Republicans and Democrats voting together – and then it got overwhelming, bipartisan support on the Senate floor.
“That’s just one more way the Senate is working again.
“So far in this Congress, we’ve passed more than 65 bills.
“The Highway Trust Fund legislation was bipartisan.
“Mr. President, there is still a lot of work to be done – specifically related to our economy.
“People want a healthy economy.
“There is still far too much red tape and regulation coming out of Washington, and it continues to strangle our economy.
“New numbers came out last week about the slow pace of economic growth over the first half of the year.
“One of the headlines came out last Friday about the slow pace and it said, “Worst Expansion Since World War II Gets Even Worse.”
“The article says, ‘The economy expanded at a 2.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, once again falling short of projections for a decisive rebound and raising concerns that the six-year-old expansion will never pick up steam.’
“The recovery from the last recession has been far weaker than recoveries from other recessions, under presidents Reagan and Clinton.
“One reason is because the Obama administration has tied the hands of those who hire others.
“It makes it much harder to get our economy going again.
“Hard-working families are still struggling because their wages are not growing.
“That’s what another set of government numbers said on Friday.
“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment costs had their worst gains ever in the second quarter of this year.
“What does the White House plan to do about it? What is President Obama’s plan for ‘Worst Expansion Since World War II Gets Even Worse’? What does the president want to do about it?
“Well, on Monday President Obama and the administration announced its so-called Clean Power Plan, and it is going to mandate massive new red tape and job-crushing regulations. It is a national energy tax.
“More Americans will lose their jobs, more hard-working families across the country will be hit with higher electric bills.
“Congress can stop this costly and destructive regulation from taking effect, and that is where we are headed.
“The way to do it is by passing a bipartisan piece of legislation called the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act.
“The American people have seen that Congress is capable of coming together to take on important issues – and this is certainly one.
“Hard-working Americans are extremely anxious for us to continue working together to solve some of these problems that continue to face our country.
“We’ve done it before, and we can do it again as long as we have a willing partner.
“The Senate passed the bipartisan Keystone XL jobs bill, then President Obama vetoed it.
“We passed an appropriations bill out of committee that funded the Department of Defense at the levels the president requested – and the Democrats here in the Senate have blocked those funds for our troops.
“In fact, Democrats are blocking all of the appropriations bills – including ones that passed out of the committee with bipartisan support.
“Mr. President, The American people want their elected representatives in the United States Senate to deal with these issues.
“The American people want to see us get past the gridlock once more – like we’ve already done so many times this year.
“The American people want us to tear down the barriers to stronger economic growth – so that they can get back to work, they can earn a decent wage, they can take care of their families.
“The Senate has accomplished a lot in the first half of the year – I believe that we can do even more in the second half.
“That is the commitment Republicans made to the American people, and we are keeping that commitment.”
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