Volume 162, No. 163 covering the 2nd Session of the 114th Congress (2015 - 2016) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE ELECTION AND SENATE PRIORITIES” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S6322-S6323 on Nov. 15, 2016.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE ELECTION AND SENATE PRIORITIES
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I came to the floor to talk about the election of November 8 and the opportunities we have, working together going forward, to turn the direction of the country around. Unfortunately, I found myself sitting here listening to the latest tirade by the Democratic leader against the President-elect and his team. Surely he is entitled to his opinion, but he does nothing to contribute to the healing of our country after a very polarizing, hotly contested election by continuing to pile on the President-elect and his team.
We had an election. The American people voted. The American people chose their next President. But to come here after the election, after the American people have spoken and made that choice, and continue to disparage their choice for the next President, as well as the leadership in the House and the Senate, really just smacks of--well, we used to call people like that sore losers. But, frankly, what he does is he also contributes to the coarsening of our discourse and debate here in the Senate.
I had to check the Standing Rules of the Senate to see whether rule XIX, which governs the terms of debate, would cover the President or the President-elect because certainly--when the Senate rules say that
``no Senator in debate shall directly or indirectly by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming of a Senator,'' certainly the Democratic leader's comments, although not technically within the ambit of the rule, violate the spirit of the rule and the sort of debate and discussions we ought to be having here in a civilized and civil and dignified sort of way.
I realize the Democratic leader will be leaving the Senate at the end of this year. I hope we can return to the sort of civil and dignified discourse and differences of opinion that we surely will have from time to time about matters of policy. This is the Senate, for heaven's sake. This is where those differences are supposed to be debated and litigated and discussed and then we vote. But the sort of recriminations that the Democratic leader keeps coming back to just strike me as inappropriate and uncalled for.
Rather than contribute to the sort of healing of our Nation that Secretary Clinton--who, by the way, had more to complain about than the Democratic leader does in terms of the outcome; she ended up on the short end of the stick--or the President of the United States, President Obama--the comments they have made, the gracious comments recognizing the importance of a peaceful transition of power from one Presidency to another--that is the sort of tone I wish we would hear more of here in the Senate and in the country generally, not pour gasoline on the fire, as the Democratic leader continues to do.
It is true that we had an earth-shaking event occur on November 8--
the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States. I believe the reason Mr. Trump was elected is because the American people want change. They are eager for Washington to tackle the big challenges we are facing as a nation, from terror threats abroad to a stagnant economy here at home. They are looking forward to an administration that believes the rules apply to all of us equally--
in other words, equal justice under the law, not that a separate set of rules applies to the Washington elites or those who can get away with it, that a different set of rules applies to them than applies to the rest of us in the country. They want equal justice under the law. They want restoration of the rule of law--something we have not seen in the outgoing administration because of an overpoliticized Department of Justice, among many other reasons.
I personally look forward to working with the President-elect in the years ahead to address issues that are important to my State and to families across the country.
I am grateful, as well, that the American people have entrusted such a big task to Republicans, who will lead both Chambers of Congress. In an election year that no one could predict--in fact, almost every prediction I made was wrong--in an election year where very few people were right about their predictions as to the ultimate outcome, we see a clear theme emerge: People want something different from business as usual when it comes to politics. They want us to shift gears. They felt it was necessary to get the country back on the right track. I agree with them.
I will note the one thing the American people did not want to change, and that is the Republican majority of the Senate. That led to the reelection of Republican Senators in States such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, in addition to the new Member of our conference from the great State of Indiana. I look forward to welcoming all of them, as well as our new Democratic colleagues, and invite them to work with us to try to meet the challenges of these times and to work together to solve the challenges and problems that confront the American people.
But it is very clear that the American people wanted a change in the White House. They did not want to change Republican majorities in both Chambers of Congress. They did not want to do that. Voters were able to cut through the noise and see what we have been able to accomplish so far--not that they gave us the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, but they have seen a difference in the last 2 years under a Republican majority in the Senate, and apparently they saw enough that they liked that they wanted to keep us in the majority. They have seen a Senate that has prioritized the American people, that has carefully and methodically returned the Senate back to the basics of doing our job, which is legislating. That includes passing key pieces of legislation through Congress, like the first multiyear highway bill in a decade. I realize that does not excite a lot of people, but it is the basic fundamental job of the Senate and the Congress to legislate, to deal with our infrastructure needs, as the Democratic leader talked about. We actually did deal with some of our major infrastructure needs by passing the first multiyear highway bill in a decade, which is important to our economy, to public safety, and to the quality of the environment. That represents a substantial accomplishment.
We also passed the first education reform law since No Child Left Behind, which was admittedly controversial. We repealed the common core mandates and devolved more authority from Washington, DC, back to the States, back to our school administrators and parents and teachers where it belongs.
We should have learned by now the hard way that when somebody has a bright idea here in Washington, DC, that has not been tried and tested across the rest of the country in the laboratories of democracy known as our States, we are just as likely to get it wrong. I would say Exhibit No. 1 or A for that is ObamaCare. Trying to take one-sixth of our economy and transform it in a way that does not get the buy-in of both political parties, much less the American people, only to see those promises not kept--that does nothing to promote public confidence in their government.
We did pass the Every Student Succeeds Act, which does send some of that power back home.
We have done a number of other things, including one that I am particularly proud of, which was to help root out human trafficking and protect the victims of this heinous crime--the first major human trafficking legislation passed perhaps in 25 years, and more resources are now available to the victims of human trafficking so that they can begin to heal.
We proved that we could get some things done--not as much as we would have liked but some substantial things.
As the Presiding Officer knows, lifting the crude oil export ban has been very important to the energy producers here in the United States and will go a long way to making sure they get a fair price for their product on the world markets. It will also give us a chance to help some of our allies around the world against whom energy is used as a weapon by people who would cut off their supply to electricity, oil, gas, and other energy sources as a way to keep them in tow.
We also passed major legislation to address the growing opioid epidemic hurting families across the country.
Under Republican leadership, the Senate saw all 12 appropriations bills pass out of their respective committees for the first time since 2009 and the first balanced budget passed since 2001. Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues saw fit to filibuster those Senate appropriations bills, which is why we are here after the election in the waning days of 2016 to try to make sure that we pay the bills and keep the government up and running in a lameduck session.
This is not a great way to do business, and this isn't our first choice. But because of the filibuster of those appropriations bills--
even though they passed out by overwhelming bipartisan majorities and represent policies that are agreed to by both political parties--here we are.
We have also had more participation on a bipartisan basis by Members of the Senate in the legislative process. There were more votes on amendments--more than 250 during this Congress. This is because of the determined leadership of our majority leader, Senator McConnell, who has seen fit to restore the power to committee chairmen to have the freedom and flexibility to lead their committees while allowing Members, on a bipartisan basis, to contribute to legislation before it comes to the floor and is subject to further action. I believe the result is the creation of solid legislation that will stand over time--
not partisan or ramming legislation through because you can do it but building consensus and trying to address problems on a step-by-step basis.
With the election behind us, the Senate can begin looking to next year. We are eager to finish our work this year, which I am sure we will shortly, and are looking to what we might be able to do with what the American voters have given us in terms of majorities in both Houses and President-Elect Trump. As I said, I look forward to working with the new President to improve the lives of the men and women working day in and day out across the country. This is an exciting moment for them and for us. It is good news that we have been provided this opportunity.
Fortunately, the Senate will continue to have a major role to play. Over the last few months, we spent a lot of time talking about what was at stake in this election. At the forefront was the U.S. Supreme Court. So I look forward to hearing who President Trump will nominate to fill the seat being vacated by the death of Justice Scalia. I hope that the Senate Judiciary Committee will take that nomination up on a timely basis and that we will quickly move forward once the nomination is made.
We have a lot more work to do. Over the last 8 years, the Obama administration has been marked by a go-it-alone attitude. Remember, the President said he had a phone and a pen, and he was quite prepared to act and not consult with Congress. Of course, that resulted in a flood of Executive orders and unilateral actions that won't live out his term of office. When he becomes President, I am confident President-Elect Trump will reverse many of those Executive orders, and we will work with the administration to repeal much of the overregulation that is strangling small businesses and our economy.
Going into this year's Presidential election, we all knew that the President-elect would have a decision to make--either to shore up President Obama's policies and further those burdensome regulations that were created by his administration or to rip up those that are in place or were put in place unilaterally and instead work with Congress on a bipartisan basis. After all, we are the elected representatives of the American people. It is our firm desire to unleash the sleeping giant of the American economy, and I believe we can, given the outcome of this election.
Fortunately, President Trump appears to be eager to work with us to help grow American jobs, strengthen our economy, and make sure that the next generation is better off than those before it. As I said, that means pushing back on harmful regulations that have been promulgated by, for example, Obama's Environmental Protection Agency. It certainly means repealing ObamaCare, a law that was jammed through on a party-
line vote and that has not worked as it was promised to work.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. I believe we also have a mandate from the American people, who are sick and tired of business as usual, ready for change and for a government that works for them and not against them.
I look forward to being part of that change. I am grateful the American people have given us the opportunity to serve.
I yield the floor.
Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ayotte). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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