Floor Statements

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio) would have voted ``yea''.

Madam President, the country lost one of its elder statesmen this week with the death of former Senator Richard Lugar.

As Members of Congress, one of the most important parts of our job is keeping our Nation secure. We only hope that when we leave Congress, we will have left our Nation a little safer than when we found it.

Richard Lugar never had to wonder if he had done that. As the Soviet Union was collapsing, Dick stepped forward and shepherded the passage of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which supported the dismantling and decommissioning of nuclear weapons in former Soviet countries before the weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists or rogue nations.

As a direct result of his efforts, over the years, thousands of weapons have been destroyed--from warheads to missiles to chemical weapons. Thanks to his work, our Nation and our world are more secure.

Dick's achievements on global security are the kind of legacy most of us can only hope to have, but, of course, that is not all that Dick Lugar did in his Senate career.

As Indiana's longest serving Senator, he also served as a leader on agricultural issues and on food security. Even after he had left the Senate, he continued to advocate for the issues that he cared about as president of the Lugar Center, which, among other things, focuses on global food security and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Dick will be sorely missed. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, particularly his wife, Char, and their four sons, Mark, Bob, John, and David.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, last week we got the first estimate of economic growth for the first quarter of 2019, and the news was excellent. The economy grew at a robust 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, smashing expectations. The news is particularly notable because the first quarter of the year is typically regarded as a weak quarter for growth.

Then, this morning, CNBC reported that 275,000 jobs were created in April--also, far exceeding expectations.

And of course these are just the latest pieces of good news about the economy. The economy is thriving, unemployment is low, job creation is up, personal income is up, wages are up, business investment is up, and much more.

How did we get here? Well, just a couple of years ago, our economy was struggling. Some experts were predicting that weak growth would be the new normal and the economic progress we have made over the past 2 years wasn't supposed to happen.

At the beginning of 2017, the Congressional Budget Office projected growth of 2.3 percent for 2017, 2 percent for 2018, and just 1.7 percent for 2019.

Actual growth, of course, exceeded those numbers: 2.5 percent for 2017, 3 percent for 2018--a full percentage point higher than the CBO's projection--and 2019 is clearly off to a great start.

So, again, how did we get here? Well, after President Trump was elected and Republicans took office, we set out to do something about the economy. We knew that Americans were struggling. Recovery from the great recession was long and slow, wages were stagnant, and too many families were living paycheck to paycheck. American families needed relief, and Republicans were committed to giving it to them. That meant getting our economy going again.

If the economy isn't thriving, then, American families aren't thriving. You need a strong economy to produce the kinds of jobs, wages, and opportunities that American workers need to flourish.

So we got right to work trimming some of the burdensome regulations that were acting as a drag on economic growth, and we made it clear to businesses that we were committed to creating the conditions that would allow them to create new jobs and opportunities for American workers.

But we knew that while cutting oppressive regulations was important, more needed to be done. So at the end of 2017, we passed a historic reform of our outdated Tax Code. We lowered tax rates for businesses, expanded business owners' ability to invest in their operations and their workers, and made American businesses more competitive in the global economy.

Now we are seeing the results: a thriving economy that is producing good jobs, better wages and benefits, and more opportunities for American workers.

Importantly, the benefits of this economic growth are being spread far and wide. In March, the Wall Street Journal noted:

All sorts of people who have previously had trouble landing

a job are now finding work. Racial minorities, those with

less education and people working in the lowest-paying jobs

are getting bigger pay raises and, in many cases,

experiencing the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for

their groups. They are joining manufacturing workers, women

in their prime working years, Americans with disabilities and

those with criminal records, among others, in finding

improved job prospects after years of disappointment.

That, again, is from the Wall Street Journal.

Getting our economy going again was a huge part of tax reform. We wanted to make life better for American workers, and we knew that a strong economy was the only way to create prosperity for Americans. We wanted to make life better for American workers, and we wanted to make sure that their families and the employees in the workplace all participated in a stronger economy. So we focused on creating the conditions for economic growth.

But that is not all we did with tax reform. We also cut individual tax rates across the board, we doubled the child tax credit, and we nearly doubled the standard deduction. Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the average family

of four received a tax cut of more than $2,000 in 2018.

We also made it easier for millions of Americans to file their taxes by reducing the need to itemize. In addition to promoting economic growth generally, we created opportunity zones to focus specifically on helping to revitalize distressed communities. Championed by Senator Scott, the opportunities zones provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provide incentives for long-term investment in low-income communities, with the goal of creating new jobs and economic opportunity for local residents.

We also took action to provide additional support to families by creating an incentive for employers to offer paid family leave to their workers.

Two-plus years ago, Republicans in Congress and the President set out with one goal in mind--to make life better for American families. I am proud that tax reform has expanded opportunity for Americans and made life easier for families, and we are not stopping here.

Republicans will keep working to ensure that the economic growth that we are experiencing continues and that every American has access to a secure and a prosperous future.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe) and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe) would have voted ``yea.''

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).