Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, as Senators get ready to head home for the August recess, I think it is a good time to look back at what we have been able to achieve so far this year.
I would say, by any measure, the record of the Senate this year has been one of great accomplishments and bipartisan achievements because we have worked together to find solutions to help the country move ahead.
With Republicans in charge, the Senate set a very fast pace for the first 100 days of the new Congress. We have kept up that pace now over the first 6 months of the Congress, and we are going to continue to build on that momentum for the rest of the year and, I believe, achieve even greater success on behalf of all Americans.
Under Majority Leader Mitch 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 first one since 2009. The Appropriations Committee passed all 12 spending bills for the first time in 6 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. And the Senate ended Washington's test-based education policies by making States responsible and accountable.
A lot of people in Washington have written about gridlock, and they had gotten used to the gridlock when Democrats ran the Senate. Now they are starting to realize the Senate really is working again. They realize we can actually get things done. That is not me speaking. That is what the Bipartisan Policy Center recently said. This is a group of former Republican and Democratic Members of Congress. They came out with a report called their ``Healthy Congress Index.'' They did it for the first 6 months of 2015.
The headline of the report was ``Continued Signs of Life in Congress.'' Continued signs of life--imagine that--actual 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 worked just so far in the first 6 months of the Senate compared to last year. That is 3 more weeks of work on the Senate floor than the year before under Harry Reid.
The Bipartisan Policy Center also said the committees are actually working again. ``Congressional committees have been extremely active, reporting a significantly larger number of bills than the previous two Congresses.'' That is because the committees are working again. In the first 6 months of this year we had 102 bills reported out of committees in the Senate, compared to just 69 in the first 6 months of the last Congress and just 42 in the Congress before that. Now, that is just through the end of June. Our committees have produced even more bills since then. So committees are working--and we are 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 are 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 is just one more way the Senate is working again.
So far in this Congress we passed more than 64 different bills. The highway trust fund legislation was bipartisan. It will fund highways and transportation all across the country, and 26 Democrats voted in favor of that legislation. We passed the education reform bill with 40 Democrats in favor. When we passed the trade promotion authority, 14 Democrats joined Republicans to get that done. These important pieces of legislation are just part of our commitment to work together to solve problems for the American people.
Even Tom Daschle--Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader--recently said: ``The good news is that Congress is continuing to move in the right direction: staying in session more often, empowering committees to work together.'' That is from a former Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle. He is exactly right. The Senate is working again, we are moving in the right direction, and we are just getting started. I am hopeful that we can continue to work together to find solutions on more issues that matter to the American people.
There is still a lot of work to be done, specifically related to our economy. People want a healthy economy. But there is still far too much redtape 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.'' ``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 [of the year], once again falling short of projections for a decisive rebound and raising concerns that the six-year old expansion will never pick up steam''--will never pick up steam, ever. So the recovery from the last recession has been far weaker than recoveries from other recessions under Presidents Reagan and Clinton.
One reason is that 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 is 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 the 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--so-called--Clean Power Plan, and it is going to mandate massive new redtape and job-crushing regulations. It is a national energy tax.
More Americans will lose their jobs, and 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 Electricity Now Act.
The American people have seen that Congress is capable of coming together to take on important issues, and this is certainly one.
Hardworking Americans are extremely anxious for us to continue working together to solve some of these problems that continue to face our country. We have done it before, and we can do it again, as long as we have a willing partner.
The Senate passed the bipartisan Keystone XL Pipeline 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.
The American people want their elected representatives in the Senate to deal with these issues. The American people want to see us get past the gridlock once more--as we have already done so many times this year. The American people want us to tear down the barriers to stronger economic growth so they can get back to work, they can earn a decent wage, and they can take care of their families.
This Senate has accomplished a lot in the first half of the year. I believe we can do even more in the second half of the year. That is the commitment Republicans made to the American people, and we are keeping that commitment.
I yield the floor.
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