John Cornyn: “we are living in historic times. The 115th Congress will be the first time in a decade that Republicans have held both…”

“we are living in historic times. The 115th Congress will be the first time in a decade that Republicans have held both Chambers of Congress and the White House. Before the George W. Bush administration in the early part of this century, you would have to go back to the Eisenhower administration--I believe it was 1953--to find a comparable time of Republican control. Interestingly, for the history buffs who may be listening, there have actually been 14 times since 1945 when we have had single-party majorities in both Houses and the White House. Eleven of those times have been our Democratic colleagues and three times have been Republicans. So I come back to where I started in saying these are truly historic times. This morning, our Republican conference met to elect our leadership team to serve in the next Congress during this extraordinary time. After gaining the majority 2 years ago, it has been a pleasure to look back and see what we have been able to accomplish even with the President from the opposing party in the White House. Yesterday I mentioned the rewrite of No Child Left Behind, which sent more authority back to the States, parents, and teachers to make education decisions for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. I also mentioned passing a long-term highway bill for 5 years--something we hadn't been able to do for a long time. Those are just two concrete examples of how, working together, we can tackle big, intractable problems.…”