During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) spoke about legislative achievements in the Senate under Republican leadership.
00:00Thank you, Mr. President. I have 15 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate.
00:07They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders.
00:11Duly noted.
00:12Thank you, Mr. President.
00:15If there are four words to describe the first seven months of the Senate Republican majority, it would be promises made, promises kept.
00:24The American people gave us a mandate to secure the border, strengthen the economy, rein in wasteful spending, and make America great again.
00:35And that's exactly what we have done while working with President Donald Trump and his administration.
00:44You can start with the Lake and Riley Act, which was the first bill signed into law,
00:50and this strengthens the Homeland Security Department's efforts to detain criminal illegal aliens and get them out of our communities.
01:01We passed the HALT Fentanyl Act, which empowers the administration to take the fight to the cartels and to end our drug crisis.
01:10We passed Senator Hagerty's Genius Act, which promotes economic freedom and helps ensure that America leads in the development of cryptocurrencies.
01:24We passed a $9 billion rescission package permanently eliminating wasteful spending on everything from biased media outlets to far-left NGOs.
01:37This is just the first of many rescission packages that we are going to send to President Trump's desk.
01:48Now, despite Democrat obstruction, which continues even today, we've also confirmed more than 100 civilian nominees who are carrying out President Trump's agenda.
02:02And we are continuing to fight for confirmation votes to make certain that the President has his entire team in place to serve the needs of the American people.
02:16Most importantly, we did pass the one big beautiful bill.
02:21It is now signed into law.
02:23There is so much good that is in this legislation that benefits all of the American people.
02:33And when I talk to Tennesseans, one of the most important things for them is the permanent extension of President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
02:47By extending these provisions, Republicans prevented the largest tax increase in history.
02:55It would have been a $4 trillion tax hike.
03:01Now, that is more than just a number.
03:04When you look at what goes into that $4 trillion of tax hike, it would have meant fewer jobs,
03:11fewer opportunities, fewer small businesses, getting the doors open, hanging out the shingle.
03:19Just the other day, I was talking to a small business owner in Tennessee.
03:26And we were discussing the big beautiful bill and the 2017 law.
03:33And he went on to talk about the 2017 tax cuts when they first went in.
03:40And this enabled him to hire two new employees, two individuals that were desperate for work.
03:51Bear in mind, we had come through the Obama years with high inflation, with shrinking economies.
03:59And the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was really that spur that our economy needed to get moving.
04:13Now, this gentleman talked about these two employees and the impact that they had made on his business.
04:19He was so concerned that if those tax cuts expired, that he would struggle to keep these individuals on the payroll.
04:30And his take was, if we did not pass the big beautiful bill, make the tax cuts permanent, restore bonus depreciation, interest expensing, R&D expensing,
04:46that for so many small businesses like his, there in Tennessee, the results would be catastrophic.
04:55But what we do know is with the one big beautiful bill, millions of small businesses can now see their way forward to grow their workforce,
05:08especially with some of the new provisions that are there, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
05:15And as one restaurant owner in Knox County recently said to me, the reduced taxes on tips will help his servers get about $1,000 more in their pocket every single year.
05:34And he also knows that that helps in making it competitive when you're trying to recruit people to come work in the restaurant business.
05:46A server over in Chattanooga said these tax cuts will be beneficial for every server.
05:53We did earn that money, they said.
05:56So they think it's great that they are going to be able to keep that money in their pocket.
06:03These tax cuts are just some of the provisions in that bill that will ensure that more Americans are going to keep their hard-earned money.
06:16What we do know is because of this law, and it is now the law of the land, it was signed on July 4th,
06:25we know that Tennessee households are going to save about $2,600 per household per year on their tax filing.
06:36Millions of seniors can now count on a bonus enhanced deduction of $6,000.
06:45That is $6,000 every senior, every year.
06:49That would offset what they have paid in income taxes on their Social Security benefits.
06:57American families will benefit from a permanent $2,200 enhanced child tax credit.
07:05Working moms and dads are going to benefit from the employer-provided child care tax credit,
07:13as more employers move forward to offer child care for their employees.
07:24Family farms can pass their legacy of hard work on to the next generation due to much-needed death tax relief.
07:33We now see that raised, $15 million for an individual, $30 million for a couple filing jointly.
07:43Tennessee small businesses make up 99.5% of businesses in our state.
07:53That's 99.5%.
07:56They're small businesses.
07:58They will keep their tax breaks and be able to hire more workers.
08:03While these tax cuts will benefit all Americans, it is hard-working people,
08:11middle-income workers, lower-income workers,
08:14who are going to see the largest reduction in federal taxes as a percentage of their previous tax bill.
08:23After four years of Bidenflation, this is much-needed relief for hard-working Americans.
08:32Of course, tax cuts are just one part of the big, beautiful bill.
08:36We secured the largest-ever investment in border security to complete the border wall
08:42and hired thousands of Border Patrol agents.
08:45We strengthened Medicaid for those who truly need it by enacting common-sense work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults.
08:56We restored fiscal sanity by eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars in far-left Green New Deal spending.
09:04These are huge wins for the American people.
09:07And the good news is that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are only getting started on delivering on our mandate to make America great again.
09:23Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum.
