Senator Mitch McConnell (00:02):
Mr. President.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Senator from Kentucky.
Senator Mitch McConnell (00:08):
I've never liked calling too much attention to today's date, February 20th, but I figured my birthday would be as good today as any to share with our colleagues a decision I made last year. During my time in the Senate, I've only really answered to two constituencies, the Republican Conference and the people of Kentucky. Over the years, the first group trusted me to coordinate campaigns, to count votes, to steer committees, to take the majority, and on nine occasions to lead our conference. Serving as a Republican leader was a rare, and yes, rather specific childhood dream. And just about a year ago, I thanked my colleagues for their confidence, which allowed me to fulfill it. To the distinguished members of this body, I've had the privilege to lead and I remain deeply, deeply grateful. Today, however, it's appropriate for me to speak about an even deeper allegiance and even longer-standing gratitude.
(01:52)
Seven times my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every day in between I've been humbled by the trust they placed in me to do their business right here. Representing our Commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last. I've been a student of history of my entire life. I can't remember the last time I didn't have a stack of biographies or political memoirs on my nightstand, and I know well how tempting it can be to read history with its sense of determinism. Assuming that, somehow notorious failures were inevitable, that crowning triumphs were predestined, and in either case, that lives and careers followed ordinary paths. This, of course, isn't how things work, and I've never had to look further in my own life to recognize it.
(03:32)
I've never lost sight of the fact that without my mother's devoted care, a childhood encounter with polio could have turned out a lot worse, and unless my father had taken a job in the Bluegrass State, my interest in politics might've run a course somewhere else. But if it weren't for an 11th hour outside the box idea on the campaign trail, my senate career would've been over before it began. Or that if not for the people of Kentucky time and again agreeing that leadership delivers and elected me to send back here, it would've been someone else from somewhere else taking that seat at the table where I've had a chance to work, strategize, fight, and win.
(04:44)
I grew up reading about the greatness of Henry Clay, but there were times when the prospect of etching my name into his desk in this chamber felt like more of a long shot than making it to the major leagues. I got a front-row seat to the greatness of Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky as a summer intern in his office, but at so many moments in my early career, the idea of falling in his footsteps felt more distant than the moon. So the only appropriate thing to take away today, apart from a healthy dose of pride, is my immense gratitude for the opportunity to take part in the consequential business of the Senate and the nation.
(05:53)
Gratitude to the people I represent, Kentucky's families and farmers and miners, and service members and small business owners. Gratitude to loyal friends, dedicated volunteers and talented staff who've helped me serve much better. Gratitude to this institution that has repaid my devotion so generously over the years and to so many colleagues who become great friends. Gratitude for my family's support, and in particular my ultimate teammate and confidant of the last 32 years. Elaine's leadership and wise counsel in their own right have made her the most seasoned cabinet official in modern history. On top of all that, her devotion to me and to Kentucky is a lot more than I deserve.
(07:11)
When I arrived at this chamber, I wasn't coming with a governor's statewide executive experience or a House member's appreciation for Washington dynamics. I knew my hometown of Louisville and I'd spent the previous few years working hard to learn what mattered to folks all across the rest of the Commonwealth, and yet within weeks of swearing the oath, sure enough, I was here on the floor talking with colleagues from other far-flung corners of the country, discussing solutions to a farm income crisis and infrastructure challenge that affected different states in the same way. I learned quickly that delivering for Kentucky meant finding the ways the Commonwealth challenges were actually tied to national debates. Seeing to it that major agriculture legislation remembered Kentucky farmers and particularly included when they needed extraordinary assistance, like the tobacco buyout. Making sure that nationwide steps on transportation infrastructure included resources for modernizing the Brent Spence Bridge, which supports billions of dollars in economic activity in Kentucky and the surrounding region. And with the trust of a local community, finishing the task first assigned by President Reagan, the safe destruction of America's legacy chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
(09:07)
So efforts like these have spanned the length of my Senate career, and I've been humbled each and every opportunity to help Kentucky punch above its weight. Of course, the Senate has to grapple with foundational questions that reach even more broadly across American life and even further into posterity. We're trusted on behalf of the American people to participate in the appointment of the federal judiciary, to be the final check on the assembly of power in the courts beyond the reach of representative politics, and to ensure that the men and women who preside over them profess authentic devotion to the rule of law above all else. When members of this body ignore, discount or pervert this fundamental duty, they do so not just of the peril of the Senate, but of the whole nation. The weight of our power to advise and consent has never been lost on me, and I've been honored to perform my role in confirming judges who understand their role.
(10:42)
On this floor, there is no place to hide from the obligations of Article I, the Senate's unique relationship with Article III, or our role in equipping the powers of Article II. Here, every debate over agriculture or infrastructure or education or taxes is downstream of the obligations of national security. Every question of policy here at home is contingent on our duty to provide for the common defense. One of the first times I spoke at length on this floor as a freshman, I was compelled to join the debate over strengthening the deterrence of America's nuclear triad, whether to expand the U.S. Military's hard-target nuclear capability was an interesting question to pose to someone whose most recent job had been running a county government, but there of course, was the Founders' brilliance at work. The hopes and dreams of every American are tied up in our ability to protect and defend the nation. And its interests.
(12:12)
Every family traveling abroad and every worker and small business owner whose livelihood depends on foreign trade, they depend in turn on the credibility of America's commitments to friends and the strengths of her threats to enemies. In turn, the safety and success of the men and women who volunteer to serve this great nation in uniform depend on the work we do here to ensure that enemies think twice, twice before challenging them and those enemies never face a fair fight. Thanks to Ronald Reagan's determination, the work of strengthening America's hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate, but since then, we've allowed that power to atrophy, and today a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it. So lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term, I have some unfinished business to attend to.
(13:34)
And our work, most of us in this body, develop an appreciation for the Senate itself. It's written rules. It's collegial norms. It's pace of play. And yet so often I've watched colleagues depart, venting their frustration at the confines of the institution or mourning what they perceive to be decline of its norms. Regardless of the political storms that may wash over this chamber, during the time I have remaining, I assure our colleagues that I'll depart with great hope for the endurance, the endurance, of the Senate as an institution. There are any number of reasons for pessimism, but the strength of the Senate is not one of them. This chamber is still the haven where the political minority can require a debate. It's still the crucible in which jurists are tested for their fidelity to upholding the constitution and lives and laws as they were written. The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence, and to the disappointment of my critics, I'm still here on the job. I yield the floor.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Mr. President.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Senator North Carolina?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the members and staff and spectators in the gallery be allowed to applaud for a period not to exceed 30 seconds.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Is there objection?