Opening the 114th Senate

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Yesterday we inaugurated the 114th Senate of the Congress. We welcomed back many dedicated Members and swore in many new ones. I have high hopes for our new colleagues. They share the resolve of my conference to restore the Senate to a place of high purpose, and they are determined to make a positive difference in the lives of the people who sent them.

The men and women we have just sworn in have inaugurated one significant change already; that is, the majority we seated yesterday. I look to this new beginning with optimism and a profound sense of purpose, and I look to my colleagues with gratitude for their trust. Next to serving the people of Kentucky, this is the highest of honors. I recognize the serious expectations of the American people and I know they are counting on us--and I do mean all of us--every single Member of this body.

We are in a moment of great anxiety as a nation. The people we represent have lost faith in their government. They no longer trust Washington to do the right thing. Many face the reality of losing health plans after being told otherwise. Many struggle with rising medical costs after Washington officials repeatedly said they would be lowered. Confidence in the American dream has plunged. Anxiety about the type of country we leave to the next generation is widespread. For many it has never seemed more difficult just to get by.

When Americans look overseas they see a world filled with chaos: instability roiling the Middle East, terrorists pressing an aggressive agenda, and autocrats scoffing at a superpower that doesn't seem to have a real plan.

At home they see a government that is either uninterested in or incapable of addressing their concerns, a government that seems to be working for itself instead of them. Whether it is Washington's dysfunction or a bureaucracy that has grown so Byzantine and unaccountable, it tried to muzzle political opponents and ignore the needs of veterans.

The American people have simply had enough, and this past November they had their say. The message they sent was clear. If voters hit the brakes 4 years ago, this time they have spun the wheel. They said they want the administration to change course and move to the middle. They said they want Congress to send legislation to the President that addresses their concerns. This November the American people didn't ask for a government that tries to do everything and fails, and they didn't demand a government that aims to do nothing and succeeds. They asked simply for a government that works.

They want a government of the 21st century, one that functions with efficiency and accountability, competence and purpose. They want a Washington that is more interested in modernizing and streamlining government than adding more layers to it, and they want more jobs, more opportunity for the middle class, and more flexibility in a complex age with complex demands.

That is why we plan to pursue commonsense jobs ideas, including those with bipartisan support: measures such as reforming a broken tax system to make it simpler and friendlier to job creation, opening more markets to American-made products so we can create more jobs at home, and moving forward with bipartisan infrastructure projects such as the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Americans are challenging this Congress and this President to work for them. They are challenging lawmakers in Washington to work for jobs for Americans, not just jobs for themselves. It seems simple enough. But in the end, in the era of divided government control, we are going to have to work hard to meet expectations and we are going to have to work together.

Step No. 1 is getting Congress functioning again. That means fixing the Senate. Last session the House sent over countless commonsense bipartisan bills. Too many of them died right here without so much as a hearing, and Senators from both parties with ideas for jobs and growth were routinely stopped.

So it is time to change the business model. We need to return to regular order. We need to get committees working again. We need to recommit to a rational, functioning appropriations process. We need to open the legislative process in a way that allows more amendments from both sides.

Sometimes it is going to mean actually working late, but restoring the Senate is the right and practical thing to do because we are only going to pass meaningful legislation if Members of both parties are given a stake in the outcome. That is the genius of regular order. That is the genius of the Senate.

I am reminded of this every time I walk into my office. On the wall are portraits of John Sherman Cooper, a Republican, and Alben Barkley, a Democrat. Keeping watch from below is a bust of Henry Clay. Each of these Senators--each of these Kentuckians--came from a different political party. Each viewed the world through a different ideological lens, but all of them believed in the Senate and all of them left behind important lessons for today: Clay, about putting country first and pursuing principled compromises; Cooper, about choosing when to make a stand and making it; and Barkley, about having the courage to think differently from a President of the same political party he had served dutifully for years.

These lessons echo into the present and they help point the way toward a better functioning government. A Senate and a Congress that function again will help move us past an era of government by crisis. It doesn't mean everything will be perfect, it doesn't mean we will never come up against a deadline, and it doesn't mean we will always agree, but together we can commit to changing the way Washington operates. This can be done. It can be done.

This Senate has seemed imperfect at moments, but it has been proven to be a place of high purpose at many other times, a place where our country has come together to confront great challenges and advance solutions that once seemed completely out of reach. That is the Senate I saw when I saw Senator Cooper whip votes for the Civil Rights Act many believed would never pass, that is the Senate I saw when President Reagan worked with Democratic leaders to pass major reforms to taxes and Social Security, and that is the Senate I saw when a Republican Congress worked with President Clinton to pass historic welfare reform.

The promise of the Senate is real. Time and time again it has been an engine for bipartisan achievement to which both parties can assume either credit or blame, and that is how we should view it today.

So, yes, the American people elected divided government, but that doesn't mean they don't want us to accomplish anything. If there is a will to do so, we can come together to achieve great things. If President Obama is interested in a historic achievement of his own, this can be his time as well.

The President has already indicated a willingness to work with us on trade and infrastructure and comprehensive tax reform. These efforts are going to require a lot of work. Navigating the political pitfalls will not be easy, but passing these types of measures will represent a win for the American people--wins we could all be proud of. The truth is we could work for bigger things too. We could work together to save and strengthen Medicare, to protect Social Security for future generations, to balance the budget and put our growing national debt on a path to elimination. But bipartisan reform can only be achieved if President Obama is interested in it. The President is the only one who can bring his party on board. He is the only one, obviously, who can sign something that Congress sends him. I assure you, threatening to veto a jobs and infrastructure bill within minutes of a new Congress taking the oath of office--a bill with strong bipartisan support--is anything but productive.

I appreciate that bipartisan compromise may not come easily for the President--not his first inclination. The President's supporters are pressing for militancy, not compromise. They are demanding the comforts of purity over the duties of progress.

From DC to Montpelier, they see the limits of an exhausted 20th century mindset asserting itself, even when nearly every lever of power has been in hand.

Across the Atlantic, they see the Sun setting on the social democratic idea. They see the tragic legacies of welfare states--empty promises and fear of the future. It is understandable why the President's supporters might want to retreat to past comforts, but now is the time to accept reality. Now is the time to actually move forward.

Americans know that democracy is not about what you can get away with, it is about what you can achieve together. Many in this body, on both sides of the aisle, understand that. I have talked to many colleagues on the other side of the aisle who understand this fully.

We are calling on the President to ignore the voices of reaction and to join us. Whatever he decides, though, this Congress is going to function again. Let's pass legislation that focuses on jobs and the real concerns of the middle class.

After so many years of sluggish growth, we are finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope. The uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama administration's long tenure in Washington--the expectation of a new Republican Congress. This is precisely the time to advance a positive, progrowth agenda.

Some of the measures the new Congress will pass may seem significant; others may seem modest. That is OK. As we have seen in recent years, a bigger bill does not always mean a better bill.

While we are always going to search for areas where we can agree, the President may not be enamored of every bill we pass, and that is OK too. It is not our job to protect the President from good ideas. A little creative tension between the Executive and the legislature can be pretty healthy in a democracy such as ours. Presidents and Congresses have disagreed before. They have confronted challenges that eclipse the ones we see today. What is important to remember is that the Senate has always endured--always. We have a duty to restore it now so we can meet the mandate of the people who sent us here.

Former majority leader Howard Baker once noted that making the Senate work is like ``trying to make 99 independent souls act in concert under rules that encourage polite anarchy.'' Yet he also reminded us that ``it doesn't take Clays and Websters and Calhouns to make the Senate work.'' It simply takes men and women of honor working in a spirit of good faith.

It may be difficult, but it has been done before and it can be done again, and if we are going to get there, it helps to recall in whose footsteps we walk today. This is the same Chamber where Dirksen and Mansfield allied for historic progress. This is where Byrd drew from antiquity to rouse colleagues to present challenges and where in later years he would critique successors on the finer points of procedure. This is where Mitchell honed the skills he needed to help bring warring communities together, enemies who responded to critics not just with floor speeches or press conferences but actually live ammunition. This is where Dole shared war stories with Inouye, and with a fateful tap on the shoulder, he would partner with Moynihan in their effort to reform Social Security.

The names of many Senators who came before us are etched into the desks we sit at today. The men and women who precede us include future Presidents and Vice Presidents. They include former athletes, veterans, and astronauts. We have forgotten some, we remember others, but their legacies live on.

Here is how Senator Claude Pepper put it:

The Senate is inefficient, unwieldy [and] inconsistent; it has foibles, its vanities, its members who are great ..... and those who think they are great. But like democracy ..... it is strong ..... it has survived many changes, it has saved the country [from] many catastrophes, [and] it is a safeguard against any form of tyranny.

In the last analysis, Pepper noted, the Senate ``is probably the price we in America have to pay for liberty.'' For everything Senator Pepper and I may not have agreed on, we certainly agreed on that.

In the same way, each of us here may not agree on every issue. We may be Republican, we may be Democrat, but we are all Americans. We each have a responsibility to make the Senate function, and we each have a duty to work for the people who sent us here in serious times to get serious results.

Let's restore the Senate we love. Let's look for areas of agreement when we can. Above all, let's make Washington work again for the people we serve.

I yield the floor.

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