plan to build 53,000 units of new housing by the year 2030 to increase our population to 700,000 people. the first time since the 1950s. the reason we did that as the workforce needs the workers. i think an urban city or any city really or the leadership can do in a lot of cases what's not happening in washington d.c. and showed that people get treated fairly in the wages get treated fairly. the conference of mayors put together an inequity tax force. i am cochair that. we were looking at different areas of how we allow people the opportunity for earning capacity to go up. we have issues around crime and what we did in boston was what created a program, pilot program to identify some of the players in the streets and give them an opportunity to get into the building trades so they get a chance to make good wages and earn her living so their life

happening in the street, they get away from that. i think there's a real possibility with cities and towns in the country to step up and make a difference when it comes to wage gaps. [applause]

yesterday we inaugurated the

114th senate of the united states congress. we welcomed back many dedicated members and swore in many new ones. i have high hopes for our new colleagues. they share the resolve of my conference to restore the senate to a place of high purpose and they are determined to make a positive deference in the lives of the people who sent them here. the men and women we just swore in have inaugurated one significant change already and that's the majority we seated yesterday. i look to this new beginning with optimism and a profound sense of purpose. and i look to my colleagues with gratitude for their trust. next to serving the people of kentucky, this is the highest of honors. i recognize the serious expectations of the american people and i know they're counting on us. and i do mean all of us.

every single member of this body. we're at a moment of great anxiety as a nation. the people we represent have lost faith in their government. they no longer trust washington to do the right thing. many face the area of losing health plans after being told otherwise. many struggle with rising medical costs after washington officials repeatedly said they would be lower. confidence in the american dream has plunged. anxiety about the type of country we leave to the next generation is widespread. and for many, it never has seemed more difficult just to get by. when americans look overseas, they see a world filled with chaos. instability roiling the middle east.

terrorists pressing an aggressive agenda and auto crats stopping at a super power that doesn't seem to have a real plan. at home they see a government that's either uninterested or incapable of addressing their concerns a government that seems to be working for itself instead of them. whether it's washington's dysfunction or a bureaucracy that's grown so byzantine and unaccountable, it tried to muzzle political opponents and ignore the needs of veterans, the american people have simply had enough, mr. president. and this past november they had their say. the message they sent was clear. if voters hit the brakes four years ago this time they spun the wheel. they said they want the administration to change course and move to the middle. they said they want congress to

send legislation to the president that addresses their concerns. this november the american people didn't ask for a government that tries to do everything and fails and they didn't demand a government that aims to do nothing and succeeds. they asked simply for a government that works. they want a government of the 21st century one that functions with efficiency and accountability competence and purpose. they want a washington that's more interested in modernizing and streamlining government than adding more layers to it. and they want more jobs, more opportunity for the middle class and more flexibility in a complex age with complex demands. that's why we plan to pursue commonsense jobs ideas including those with bipartisan

support. things like reforming a broken tax system to make it simpler and friendlier to job creation. opening more markets to american-made products so we can create more jobs here at home. and moving forward with bipartisan infrastructure projects like the keystone x.l. pipeline. americans are changing this congress and this president. what they're saying to us, they're challenging us, this congress and this president to work for them. they're challenging lawmakers in washington to work for jobs for americans, not just jobs for themselves. seems simple enough, but in the end, in the era of divided government control we're going to have to work hard to meet expectations and we're going to have to work together. step one is getting congress functioning again. that means fixing the senate.

last session the house sent oamp countless commonsense -- sent over countless commonsense bipartisan bills. too many of them died right here without so much as a hearing and senators from both parties with ideas for jobs and growth were routinely silenced. it's time to change the business model. we need to return to regular order. we need to get committees working again. we need to recommit to a rational functioning appropriations process. we need to open up -- open up -- the legislative process in a way that allows more amendments from both sides. sometimes it's going to be mean actually working more often. sometimes it's going to be meaning -- will mean working late. but restoring the senate is the right thing to do and it's the practical thing to do. because we're only going to pass

meaningful legislation if members from both parties are given a stake in the outcome. that's the genius of regular order. that's the genius of the senate. i'm reminded of this every time i walk into my office. on the wall are portraits of john ver man cooper a republican and alvin barkically -- alvin barkley, a democrat. each of these kentuckians came from a different political party. each viewed the world through different ideological lens, but all of them believed in the senate. and all of them left behind important lessons for today. clay about putting country first and pursuing principled compromise. cooper about choosing when to make a stand and making it.

and barkley about having the courage to think different from a president of the same political party he served dutifully for years. lessons like those mr. president, echo into the present and they help point the way toward a better functioning government. a senate and a congress that function again will help move us past an era of government by crisis. it doesn't mean everything will be perfect. it doesn't mean we'll never come up against a deadline. and it doesn't mean we'll always agree. but together we can commit to changing the way washington operates. this can be done. it can be done. this senate has seemed imperfect at moments but it has proven a place of high purpose at many other times a place where our country has come together to

confront great challenges and advance solutions that once seemed completely out of reach. that's the senate i saw when i watched senator cooper whip votes for the civil rights act many believed would never pass. that's the senate i saw when president reagan worked with democratic leaders to pass major reforms to taxes and to social security. and that's the senate i saw when a republican congress worked with president clinton to pass historic welfare reform. the promise of the senate is real. time and time again it has been an engine for bipartisan achievement to which both parties can assume either credit or blame. and that's how we should view it today. so yes the american people elect a divided government but that doesn't mean they don't want us to accomplish anything. if there's a will to do so, we can come together to achieve

great things. and if president obama is interested in an historic achievement of his own, this can be his time as well. he's already indicated a willingness to work with us on trade and infrastructure and comprehensive tax reform. these efforts are going to require a lot of work, navigating the political pitfalls won't be easy. but passing these types of things would represent a win for the american people, wins we could all be proud of. the truth is we could work for bigger things too. we could work together to save and strengthen medicare, to protect social security for future generations to balance the budget and put our growing national debt on a path to elimination. but bipartisan reform can only be achieved if -- if --

president obama is interested in it. the president is the only one who can bring his party on board. he's the only one obviously who can sign something the congress sends him. and i assure you threatening to veto a jobs and infrastructure bill within minutes of a new congress taking the oath of office a bill with strong bipartisan support is anything but productive. now, i appreciate that bipartisan compromise may not come easily for the president not his first inclination. the president's supporters are press forge militancy these days, not compromise. they're demanding the comforts of purity over the duties of progress. from d.c. to montpelier, they see the limits of an exhausted 20th century mind-set asserting itself, even when nearly ever level -- every lever

of power has been at hand and across the atlantic they see the sun setting on the social democratic idea. they ethe tragic legacies of welfare states, empty promises, and fear of the future. so it's understandable why the president's supporters might want to retreat to past comfort. but now is the time to accept reality. now is the time to actually move forward. americans know that democracy isn't about p what you can get away with. it's about what you can achieve together. many in this body understand that on both sides of the aisle. i've talked to many colleagues on the other side who understand this fully. we're calling on the president to ignore the voices of reaction and to join us. whatever he decides though, this congress is going to function again.

let's pass legislation that focuses on jobs and the real concerns of the middle class. after so many years of sluggish growth we're finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope. the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the obama administration's long tenure in washington: the expectation of a new republican congress. so this is precisely the time to advance a positive pro--growth pro--- pro-growth agenda. some of the measures may seem significant others modest. thesethat's okay. as we've seen in recent years a bigger bill doesn't always mean a better bill. while we're always going to search for areas where we can agree, the president may not be enamored of every bill we pass. that's okay, too.

it's not our job to protect the president from good ideas. a little creative tension between the executive and the legislature can be a pretty healthy ning thing in a democracy like ours. presidents and congresses have disagreed before. they have confronted challenges that eclipse the ones we see today. what is important to remember is that the senate has always endured -- always. and we have a duty to restore it mao so that we can meet the -- now so that we can meet the mandate of the people who sent us here. howard baker once noted that making the senate work is like trying to make 99 independent souls act in concert under rules that encourage polite an ar can -- anarchy. let he always reminded us that it doesn't clack clays and

websters and cal hoons to make the senate work. it simply takes men and women work income a spirit of good faith. it may be difficult but mr. president, it's been done before. and it can be done again. and if we're going to get there it helps to recall in whose food p-- in whose footsteps we walk today. this is the same chamber where historic progress was gotten. this is where byrd dpriew antiquity to rouse rouse colleagues to present challenges and where in later years he would critique successors on the finer points of procedure. this is where mitchell honed the skills he needed to help bring warring exphiewntses together.

-- warring communities together. this is where dole shared war stories with inouye and with a fateful tap on the shoulder, where he would partner with moynihan in their effort to reform social security. the names of many senators who come before us are etched into the desk we sit at today. the men and women who precede us include future presidents and vice presidents. they include former athletes, veterans and astronauts. we've forgotten some. we remember others. but their legacies live on. here's how senator claude pepper put it: "the senate," he said, "is inefficient, unwielding, and

inconsistent. it has foibles. it has vanities. it has members who are great and those who think they are great. but like democracy, it is strong. it has survived many changes. it has saved the country from many catastrophes, and it is a safeguard against any form of tyranny." in the last analysis, pepper said "the senate is procedural the price we in america have to pay for immunity." we certainly agreed on that. in the same way each of us here may not agree on every issue. we may be republican. we may be democrat. but we are americans. we each have a responsibility to make the senate function. and we each have a duty to work

for the people who sent us here in serious times to get serious results. so let's restore the senate we love. let's look for areas of agreement when we can. and, above all let's make washington work again for the pen the calendar. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i am going to read a statement into the record from the minority leader, senator reid, but before i'd like to preface that reading by saying that i believe that this side of the aisle, the senators serving on

the democratic side, are committed to the traditions, the precedents the rules of the united states senate. we, of course, will work to preserve this great institution and to protect our own individual rights and responsibilities in the senate. i welcome what senator mcconnell, our new majority leader has envisioned as a more active floor in the senate, where we do not run into lengthy and repeated filibusters but, in fact bring amendments to the floor, debate them, vote on them and ultimately pass legislation. that is the procedure of the senate which historically had been honored but fell, sadly into disrepair over the last several years. though we hope that our minority status in the senate is short-lived, i think that we will establish that the democrats are a much