Majority Leader | Remark | Remarks | THE NEWSROOM | Repub...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMRemarks12.18.25Thune on Senate Republicans’ Record-Breaking Year“[T]hanks to our work this year, Americans are going to be looking at, one, safer streets; two, more money in their pockets; and three, new opportunities - new opportunities to get ahead and new opportunities on the way for American people and American families.” Click here to watch the video.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):“Mr. President, as … we’re about to wrap up … our legislative work for 2025, I would say it’s been quite a busy year here in the United States Senate.“The longest session period in 15 years to kick off the year.“An historic number of votes – the most, literally, in half a century.“In fact, Mr. President, if you can see on this chart, the number of votes, you go back, the first date on there is [1983].“Obviously, this is pretty small, difficult to see, perhaps, unless you’re standing right over it.“But if you look at the red line here, that’s this year – so, 653 votes cast so far this year.“Which dwarfs any year going back to 1989, which is what we had data going back to.“We have since researched farther back; turns out there was one year, 1976 – we went back eight decades – there was one year, 1976, where the Senate cast more votes than we did this year.“But if you go back to [1983], the closest one is right here, 1995, which for those of us who were actually following it back then, that was the Contract with America year, and so that was a record number of votes cast in both, I think, the House and the Senate.“But we have eclipsed that.“There were 613 votes cast in 1995; this year in the United States Senate, we have already cast 653 – and we are not quite done yet.“So, historic just in terms of the number of votes cast, the number of hours in session, and the number of days in session – also historic just in terms of the amount of time that we’ve been around here, Mr. President.“So we’ve put in a lot of time here this year.“Now, I have always said that you can’t equate volume of activity or busyness with productivity – I think you have to, those are sometimes separate metrics.“But I would argue, Mr. President, that what really matters is not the number of votes or the number of hours that we’ve worked – it is what we accomplished with those hours.“And this has been an incredibly productive Senate, and I’m proud to say that we’ve accomplished a lot this year in the United States Senate.“Our flagship bill … for the year, of course, was the One Big Beautiful Bill – the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.“And the largest part of that was, in fact, the tax cuts that were enacted that are going to benefit American families, Mr. President.“Back in 2017, the Republicans delivered substantial tax relief for hardworking Americans.“But that tax relief was scheduled to expire at the end of this month.“And so one of our main priorities for this year was extending that tax relief.“And extend it we did.“But we didn’t just extend it – we made it permanent, and we added to it additional tax relief on top.“So now hardworking Americans can enjoy permanently lower rates, plus an increased standard deduction, a further increase in the child tax credit, a new bonus deduction for seniors, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and Mr. President, that list goes on and on.“In addition to new and permanent tax relief for individuals and families, we also made permanent important tax relief for businesses of all sizes, to help our growth and expand jobs and opportunities for American workers.“So, I would just say again, Mr. President, if you look at that map, this measures – and again, it’s too far away for people to see – but the color coding represents the amount of tax relief that people in these individual states or even within a state will receive based upon the filings and what we expect they’ll be filing for next year.“But if you can see at the top of that, the U.S. average is $3,752 in savings as a result of what we did to prevent what would have been the largest tax increase in American history.“And so American families this next year, American businesses, are going to have more money in their pockets as a result of what we did.“Had we not taken those actions, the average [filer] across this country would’ve seen a $3,752 increase in their taxes.“And so that’s sort of representative of the chart across the country, and the darker ones means you’re probably getting more tax relief relative to the lighter colors,.“But nevertheless everyone in this country who files a tax return is going to see a much lower tax bill, tax liability, this next year as a result of what we did.“So, that’s a lot right there, Mr. President, in and of itself.“But the One Big Beautiful Bill didn’t end with the Working Families Tax Cuts.“We also invested in a more secure border and safer streets.“We made a historic investment in our national security.“And we repealed the Democrats’ natural gas tax and took steps to unleash American energy production, to ensure that Americans have stable, plentiful, and affordable supply of energy.“We took measures to modernize the farm safety net, something very important in my state of South Dakota.“To address housing costs.“To repair and upgrade our air traffic control system.“Now, Mr. President, I could keep going.“The Working Families Tax Cuts and the rest of the One Big Beautiful Bill accomplished a lot for hardworking Americans.“But that’s not all that we’ve done in the Senate this year.“The American people elected President Trump last November.“And one of our priorities this year has been ensuring that the president has his team in place so that he can do the job the American people elected him to do.“And I’m proud to report that by the end of this week, we will have confirmed 417 nominees – far more than were confirmed by this point in either President Trump’s first term or in President Biden’s term.“And it’s even more remarkable, Mr. President – and again, you can see this in real form here.“This was President Trump’s first term in office – at the end of his first year, which would be the end of 2017, there were 323 of his nominees that had been confirmed.“Under President Biden, at the end of the first year, 2021, there were 365 of his nominees who had been confirmed by the United States Senate.“And as of today, that number here in 2025, in President Trump’s second term, will be 417 nominees.“And that is important, Mr. President, because every president needs to have his team in place to do the job that the American people elected him to do.“So, as we think about, and [I] discussed on the floor yesterday, you look at the president’s [second] term, what makes this even more remarkable was the fact that there was a historic level of obstruction by the Democrats to getting the president’s nominees in place.“I’m talking about something unlike we’ve ever seen in American history for any president of any political party.“And if you look at his [second] term, Mr. President, President Trump remains the only president on record not to have had a single civilian nomination confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.“The only president on record.“Democrats have dragged out the process on almost every single one of the president’s nominations.“Not out of principle, but out of petty partisanship.“Any president going back in history, Mr. President, when they get elected, get a mandate from the American people, generally both political parties – and I’ve been here through multiple administrations, both Republican and Democrat, and I’ve been here in multiple Congresses and Senates, both Republican and Democrat, and in every case, a lot of, particularly when you get past the Cabinet, which we all take very seriously, obviously, and there is a process in place and some of the changes that we made to expedite nominations didn’t affect Cabinet-level nominees – but when you get to the sub-Cabinet level, in many cases, particularly noncontroversial nominees have been approved by unanimous consent or voice vote.“It is a way of recognizing that a president needs to get his team in place in order to accomplish the work and the agenda that the American people elected, in this case President Trump, to do.“And so what happened this year was historic and unprecedented.“Because most of those lower-level Cabinet nominees are done by unanimous consent – that’s just been the practice, that has been the precedent, that has been the tradition, that has been the history of the United States Senate.“And for President Trump, the first president in American history.“But as I said, Mr. President, we as Republicans haven’t let that stop us, and so when we close out this year with a total of 417 nominees [confirmed], we will have the backlog of nominees essentially cleared.“Mr. President, considering nominations is one responsibility of the government.“Funding the government – together with the House of Representatives – is another.“And one thing that I was determined on when I became leader was to make sure that the Senate went about considering the yearly appropriations bills through regular order – a process that gives senators from both parties the greatest chance to make their voices (and the voices of their constituents, I might add) heard.“And we’ve done a lot to return the Senate to a regular order process this year.“Appropriations work was unnecessarily delayed by Democrats’ decision to shut down the government for six weeks.“But despite that, we’ve had multiple individual appropriations bills signed into law, and the Senate is well on its way to passing five additional bills.“Now, Mr. President, there’s a lot more I could talk about when it comes to Senate accomplishments in 2025.“We’ve taken action to repeal a number of burdensome rules and regulations, including the Biden electric vehicle mandate, appliance rules that would have driven up prices for hardworking Americans and businesses, and energy mandates that would have driven up energy prices for American families.“We passed the HALT Fentanyl Act to permanently schedule fentanyl analogues as the most deadly type of drugs.“We passed the Laken Riley Act to keep criminal illegal aliens off our streets.“We passed the GENIUS Act – a landmark bill to create the first U.S. federal framework for stablecoins and ensure … U.S. leadership in financial innovation.“We passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act to combat nonconsensual explicit images being shared online.“And Mr. President, so much more that I could talk about.“And we even tried to do things that ultimately were blocked by Democrats, like legislation that would prevent biological males from hijacking opportunities for women and girls in sports.“I guess my point, Mr. President: It’s been a long and a challenging year here in the United States Senate.“And I thank all of my colleagues – both Republican and Democrat – and all the staff, including the folks here on the floor, who put in long days and long hours in this last year.“And I think, Mr. President, there is a lot to show for it.“In fact, if I put up this last chart, you’ll have a hard time, nobody’s going to be able to read this, for sure.“But I do this only simply to illustrate, this is the list of things that we have accomplished in this last year.“And it runs the gamut from all the things, some of which I just mentioned – a lot of which I didn’t mention – that were included in the Working Families Tax Cuts, the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed last summer.[…]“So, Mr. President, it is, I think, an example of what we all came here to do.“And thanks to our work this year, Americans are going to be looking at, one, safer streets; two, more money in their pockets; and three, new opportunities – new opportunities to get ahead and new opportunities on the way for American people and American families.“And so Mr. President, we’re going to keep advancing those priorities here in the United States Senate in 2026 – and build on the record of accomplishment and successes that we have had here in 2025.”PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
