Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from further consideration of, and the Senate now proceed to, S. Res. 33.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 53, submitted earlier today.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Thursday, February 7; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 47, with all postcloture time on the motion to proceed expired.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the resolution of the Senate of January 24, 1901, the traditional reading of Washington's Farewell Address take place on Monday, February 25, 2019, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. McCONNELL. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceedings.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Last night, the President shared a hopeful vision of a bright future for our country. In part, he reminded us that the future is bright because of the big steps we have taken together in the past 2 years to move the Nation forward--steps such as historic tax reform that has helped middle-class families across America keep more of what they earn; the regulatory reforms that have amped up our economy and fueled job creation; the landmark legislation we passed to combat the opioid epidemic; the long-needed investment in our Armed Forces that gives our servicemembers the tools and training they need to keep us safe. As I mentioned yesterday, some of these accomplishments were delivered by Republicans alone, but the lion's share of them were bicameral and bipartisan. They combined the ideas and priorities of both sides of the aisle and both Chambers of Congress. So even though I know our Democratic colleagues' first instinct these days is to reflexively criticize anything President Trump says or does, I hope they took some pride in the strong state of our Union which the President described. This great country belongs to all of us, and it is going to take all of us to keep moving forward. As the President put it, ``cooperation, compromise, and the common good.'' Last night, the President highlighted, in particular, the national challenges he sees as most urgent and as top priorities for his administration this year. Tackling them will require that same bipartisan spirit in Congress. He restated the administration's commitment to addressing the humanitarian and security crisis at our Nation's southern border, to fighting on behalf of American workers and job creators, to rebuilding America's infrastructure, and to helping simplify families' budgets by lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs. On these and other challenges, the American people deserve the full attention of a fully functioning Congress. They deserve a Democratic Party that puts the public interest ahead of political spite and comes to the table to negotiate necessary compromises. Well, it will not be long before we will see if this institution can rise to the occasion. The next deadline for appropriations will arrive in a little over a week, and Members in both Chambers will need to prove we can move past making points and start actually making a difference. Throughout the coming year, if we are serious about advancing meaningful policy, this basic requirement will remain the same--good- faith efforts between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican- controlled Senate and President Trump's administration. Another challenge the President mentioned is the ongoing obstruction of his nominations to the executive branch and the Federal courts. He was absolutely right about that. To a historic degree, Senate Democrats have slow-walked well-qualified nominees, gumming up committee consideration and burning weeks of valuable time on the floor. As I have said time and again, this mindless obstruction is unacceptable. So I was encouraged the President took an opportunity last night to highlight for the Nation exactly what we are up against in this regard. We are into the third year of his Presidency--the third year--and the American people deserve a fully functioning and fully staffed Federal Government after 3 years. It is time for their elected representatives to be part of the solution. I know several of our colleagues are discussing ways to help the Senate better fulfill its duty in this area. I hope there will be cooperation from the other side of the aisle to identify and advance a durable and fair solution. President Trump offered a clear picture of the ways in which our policies are delivering significant results to families across America and the urgent challenges we still need to confront together. He offered us a powerful reminder that America's strength and goodness are inextricably linked with our commitment to individual liberty and free enterprise and that we can never allow the United States of America to dim our light by sliding into the failures of socialism. Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, and we are not going to try it in this country. We need to do right now what we need to in order to move forward together. The brief Democratic response showed us one potential way forward. Our colleagues across the aisle could simply deny the facts in front of us about the progress that has taken place--progress which middle-class families all across America can tangibly feel--and use the same, tired, forgettable cliches to divide our Nation along political lines, but the President offered a chance to walk together, unified, along a higher road. Both the tone and the substance of his speech would strike any fair observer as reasonable and thoroughly bipartisan. Once again, the only way this divided Congress will be able to choose greatness and deliver significant legislation to the American people is by focusing on, as President Trump put it, ``cooperation, compromise, and the common good.'' That will need to be our motto moving forward. The Nation we love deserves no less. The American people will be watching us.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday the Senate took another step toward delivering an important package of legislation. We passed my amendment to Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act and voted to advance the bill, both by very wide bipartisan margins. S. 1 represents the broad consensus of this body about our Nation's responsibilities as an ally and a partner. It reaffirms our promise to uphold Israel's security, to help Jordan face complex security challenges, and to hold Bashar al-Assad's murderous henchmen accountable. I look forward to the Senate voting on final passage soon and sending this bipartisan legislation over to the House. After we complete that work, the Senate will return to the Natural Resources Management Act, a high-priority bill containing more than 100 proposals concerning economic development, public lands, water resources, and conservation.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on another matter, tonight Congress will host President Trump for his second State of the Union Address. I am looking forward to attending and hearing the President reflect on the great strides our Nation has made over the past 2 years and his vision for the challenges that are still before us. From historic tax reform and regulatory reform, to huge progress in the fight against ISIS, to landmark progress in the nationwide fight against opioid addiction, the story over the last 2 years has been one of immense policy progress for our country. The American people are less interested in beltway melodrama and more interested in the classic question: Am I better off than I was 2 years ago? On this front, thanks to a few key Republican victories and a number of major bipartisan accomplishments, the state of the Union is strong and growing stronger. It has now been more than 2 years since the American people hired President Trump and a Republican Congress to get Washington's foot off the brake of our economy. Since then, we got to work rebuilding the middle-class prosperity that had hollowed out communities across America under the Obama economy. After 8 years of watching leftwing policies disproportionately benefit coastal cities and our Nation's largest metro areas while mostly leaving small cities, small towns, suburbs, and rural America behind, the American people wanted a change. That is exactly what the last 2 years' policies have delivered. Historic tax reform delivered higher take-home pay and helped breathe life into the engine of American job creation and innovation. Landmark regulatory reform cut burdensome compliance costs for small businesses, reigned in Federal overreach on education policy, and defended Americans' rights of conscience. So what are these policies doing for the American people? I think the answer is pretty clear. All those Americans who had been struggling to find work? Well, today a higher percentage of Americans are working than were ever working at any point under President Obama. For the first time in modern recorded history, we have reached and stayed at a level where there are more job openings nationwide than Americans looking for jobs. Listen to these headlines: ``Employers' Hiring Push Brings Workers Off the Bench.'' ``Disability Applications Plunge as the Economy Strengthens.'' Listen to this, from one news article: The tighter labor market is delivering opportunities to a broad swath of workers who were disproportionately affected by the last recession. Unemployment has fallen sharply for blacks, Latinos, younger workers and those without a college education . . . [and] the deeper jobs pool has been particularly crucial for improving the economic outlook for disabled Americans. These and many more Americans have been able to find work, but what about Americans who already had jobs but felt like their families were treading water and needed to get ahead? Last year, the amount of money employers spent compensating American workers--those already working--grew at its fastest pace in more than 10 years. Thanks to tax reform, when many working families and small businesses file under the new Tax Code, they will see less of their money has been sent off to the IRS. So there are more jobs to choose from, more wage growth, and higher take-home pay following tax cuts, but it is also worth looking at where this new prosperity is going. The last administration's leftwing policies disproportionately benefited the Nation's largest metropolitan areas. It turns out, policies dreamt up in places like New York and San Francisco worked pretty well in places like New York and San Francisco, but the rest of the country decided we could do better. Today businesses on Main Street and family farms are dusting off their ``Help Wanted'' signs. Smaller cities and States like Indiana, Nebraska, and Ohio have so many job openings that some of these communities are offering sizeable cash bonuses to move there. Smaller communities and rural America recently outpaced the rest of the country in relative job creation. So it is an all-American comeback, and the kinds of places liberal policies left behind are now at the front of the pack. I have focused this morning on our robust economy. It is helping American families lift themselves higher, but it is just one part of the success story the President will be able to tell tonight. The last 2 years have seen the White House and the Congress work together to identify pressing national challenges and to develop big bipartisan compromise solutions to attack them head-on. Working together, both parties collaborated on more than a dozen targeted measures to improve access to quality care for our Nation's veterans and passed landmark legislation to help local communities heal the wounds created by opioid addiction. I am delighted to have one of these local champions as my guest tonight. Lisa Minton is leading on the frontlines of Kentucky's battle against opioid abuse. She runs the Chrysalis House, a treatment facility for pregnant and new mothers fighting addiction in Lexington. In 2017, I worked with Lisa to secure a $2.6 million grant to expand their services for low-income women and their children. I am glad she will be in the House Chamber this evening, and I am proud to highlight her amazing work this morning. Working together, a bipartisan majority ended the harmful spending caps that hampered military readiness and made major progress restoring regular order appropriations on behalf of the American taxpayer. A bipartisan majority delivered commonsense relief for local lenders on Main Street from the burden of regulations designed for Wall Street. These are just a few examples, and it is a good thing we know we can tap into that bipartisan spirit because the American people did not hire us to spend the next 2 years in total gridlock. That is not what they did. When the American people elect divided government, they are saying: We know you disagree on a lot of things, but look to the things you agree on and do those. If the past few weeks have shown anything, it is that we need to work together across the aisle in order to do our work, and make no mistake, there are significant challenges ahead, such as addressing the ongoing security and humanitarian crisis at our southern border, lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, and taking further steps to rebuild America's infrastructure. Tonight I expect the President will offer a serious vision to deal with challenges like these. I look forward to hearing from him and then, throughout the coming year, I look forward to the Senate working closely with him and working closely with each other across the aisle to do just that. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of Calendar Nos. 1 through 4 and all nominations on the Secretary's desk; that the nominations be confirmed; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Presiding Officer of the Senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the Senate to join with a like committee on the part of the House of Representatives to escort the President of the United States into the House Chamber for the joint session to be held at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5, 2019.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 439 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. McCONNELL. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess until 8:25 p.m. tonight and upon reconvening, proceed as a body to the Hall of the House of Representatives for the joint session of Congress provided under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 9; that upon dissolution of the joint session, the Senate adjourn until 10 a.m., Wednesday, February 6; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 47, with all time during the recess, adjournment, morning business, and leader remarks counting postcloture on the motion to proceed to S. 47.