María Elvira Salazar: “first, let me praise our great majority leader and Senator McConnell, the minority leader, for bringing us together for…”

“first, let me praise our great majority leader and Senator McConnell, the minority leader, for bringing us together for a good start to the 110th Congress. The idea of a joint caucus, both parties coming together to send a signal that we were going to work together in the 110th Congress as we begin, was a very good step. I believe Senator Reid said we are now entering a season of hope and that we can move forward with hope for positive results in the 110th Congress. Senator McConnell talked about how a government, even though it may be divided by the two parties and the executive branch, can be the kind of government that can bring about good results for the people of America. That was a very good statement as well. Citing what happened in the 1981 Reagan Social Security revision, that was an example of how a divided Government could get a result, as well as his speaking about the 1996 welfare-to-work reform. That was another good example of how we can get things done. I hope this Congress, in fact, gets to be known as the Congress that did, in fact, produce results for the American people and that we can work together to bring about those results. Today, as we begin the consideration of S. 1, it is one of those efforts in which we together are attempting to show results to the American people to restore the confidence of the American people in the institutions that belong to them.”