Patty Murray: “I congratulate Senators Reid, the new majority leader, and McConnell, the Republican leader, for setting the right tone…”

“I congratulate Senators Reid, the new majority leader, and McConnell, the Republican leader, for setting the right tone today by bringing us together this morning and reminding us all that we are here together to work on a very important agenda for the American people. We will have our disagreements, our partisan battles, but at the end of the day we have to move legislation forward because if there was any message to me out of the November election that brought us to the majority now, it was that people want us to get past the partisan rancor on the floor of the Senate. They want us to get past the bickering. They expect debates, they like that, but at the end of the day they want us to move forward. Across this country today, American families are struggling to send their kids to college, struggling to get health care, struggling with their pensions, struggling with their salaries, and they expect us, the 100 leaders of the Senate, to be here together to solve those issues in a way that moves them forward and gives promise and hope to the next generation.”