Roy Blunt: “I begin today by congratulating my friend, the senior Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, on becoming the longest…”

“I begin today by congratulating my friend, the senior Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, on becoming the longest serving Republican leader in the history of the Senate. This is an institution where somebody once wisely, I think, observed that there are only really two rules. Unanimous consent and total exhaustion are the way the Senate has in the past reached conclusions. That would not be and is not an easy group to lead. But I think Senator McConnell, more than any other Member of the current Senate, appreciates and understands the institution in ways that very few people do. He used the skills of understanding the uniqueness of the Senate. There is no other legislative body designed, as this body was, to be sure that the minority is heard and to be sure that the time we take is adequate for points of view to be put out there. During that time, in the past year, Senator McConnell has led our conference and the Senate in delivering the biggest tax overhaul in three decades, confirming a record number of circuit court judges, and overturning unnecessary regulations that were holding the economy back, and that is not easy to do. Every Member of the Senate comes here on their own. They come here working for the people who elected them. In many ways, we have 100 independent contractors who understand their bosses--the people they work for--and the States they come from better than anybody else on the Senate floor does. Now, that is not a bad thing.…”