February 5, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 22 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S841-S842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

  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

[[Page S842]]

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.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. 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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