Massachusetts and orrin hatch from utah. A lot of folks like to joke about the odd couple, but i think Mitch Mcconnell and barack obama may have them outdone. Senator mcconnell was one of 10 republican senators to vote for Loretta Lynch for attorney general. It will have majority leaders mcconnells remarks next. Followed by a discussion on the future of congress and later a look at the u. S. And for structure needs. Infrastructure needs. Good afternoon everyone. [applause] welcome. I have the great privilege of being the president of the Edward M Kennedy institute for the United States senate. This wonderful new building and this wonderful Innovative Technology exhibit outside leads to this wonderful replica of the United StatesSenate Chamber. It is the heart and soul of the institute. It is a fullscale replica with a little bit more technology, as you can see. If this is your first digit visit, i hope you will come again to see all that we offer you we are very pleased to welcome you today for the launch of one of our Public Program series, get to the point. We are very excited have majority leader Mitch Mcconnell be our first speaker. Our formula today will include remarks from senator mcconnell. It is my pleasure to introduce mrs. Victoria reggie kennedy. We know her well in massachusetts. [applause] i think all has been said but you do know that she is a founding president of the institute and we would not be here without her energy, determination and her vision for making this place that will inspire a next generation of leaders. Mrs. Kennedy. [applause] mrs. Kennedy thank you so much for those warm words. It is so great to be with all of you and i would be remiss if i did not say a warm word of welcome to senator paul kerr, thank you for being here. Also, our founding chair is here. [applause] thank you so much. Good afternoon and happy mothers day to all of you. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Edward M Kennedy institute for the United States senate. This institute was created to educate the public about the Important Role of the United States senate and our government. To encourage participatory democracy, invigorate civil discourse, and inspire a new generation of leaders. This afternoon, with our esteemed inaugural speaker, for our get to the Point Program series, i believe we fulfill every single aspect of that Ambitious Mission statement. Let me make something clear. We call this program get to the point not because we are concerned about filibustering but because we are located here at columbia point. Next of a john f. Kennedy library and adjacent to the massachusetts archives. How fitting it is that we are surrounded by its authors of learning, intellectual inquiry in history. How fitting it is that our first speaker is the majority leader of United States senate. The senior senator from kentucky who is also longestserving senator in kentucky history. Mitch mcconnell. We are honored by his residence today. He is by any measure a man of the senate and a proven leader. He was an honored graduate and Political Science from the university of louisville. He received his law degree from the Kentucky School of young law where he was also the president of this bar association. Are you sensing a pattern . Leader mcconnell was first exposed to the senate in a personal way when he served as an in turn. As much as we left the emk instituto hope to inspire new generation, senator cooper inspired mcconnell to serve, too. I feel very certain that senator cooper would be very proud of all his protege has accomplish. By the time he was elected in his own right in net unity for unseating in 1984, unseating an incumbent, Mitch Mcconnell had finely tuned legislative chops. Our speaker worked hard and rose through the leadership ranks. First as chair of the Republican Senatorial campaign committee, a make or break proving ground for many. It was a make for our speaker. He was asked to serve in that position for a second cycle. Then was elected by his peers to be minority with and then minority whip and then minority leader. Mitch mcconnell was unanimously elected for the 115th congress. Leader mcconnell has shown tremendous judgment in his personal life marrying a woman with extraordinary grace and a couple spent. Former secretary of labor and my friend, elaine chao. She has the distinction of being the longest serving labor secretary ever. He served during both terms of george w. Bush and i am proud to say that the then senate, Edward M Kennedy, happily and proudly presided over are unanimous confirmation for both terms and thoroughly enjoyed working with her. Teddy also enjoyed working with her at the institute of politics at harvard, a place that was near and dear to her heart. Im happy she is here with us today. I know it is fashionably to say that washington is irretrievably broken and pulverized. I for one, do not believe that. As teddy would say, you can disagree without being disagreeable. Even though they didnt often vote the same way, they did sometimes. When they didnt, it wasnt personal. Teddy was honored to speak at the Mcconnell Institute of the university of louisville. We here at the Kennedy Institute are likewise enjoying our collaboration with students in developing programming for here. Both my husband and our speaker today revered the institution of the senate and understood what senator mcconnell has said, that the senate is, and i quote, one of the greatest tools we have in this country for guaranteeing a durable and stable legislative consensus. It is my great honor and a distinct pleasure to introduce him now. The majority leader of United States senate, the senior senator from kentucky, Mitch Mcconnell. [applause] sen. Mcconnell it wont surprise you when i say that Everybody Loves vicki. [applause] elaine does. I do. Our colleagues in the United States senate, regardless of party, have deep respect and admiration vicki, for what you provided for ted and what you are doing now. This is an extraordinary contribution to the country. Not only in commemoration of ted, but to underscore the importance of the institution of the senate. I dont think it is any secret that vicki, you gave ted a sense of stability and tranquility in his later life. Even as he retained all of the passion and intensity with which we associate him. Boy was he passionate. That bellowing voice from the back of the room. There was no mistaking when kennedy was up and doing his thing. You made more of him than he was without you. It was an extraordinary coming together of two outstanding people. I want to thank all of you for coming here. I see justice prior sitting there, you must have had a slow afternoon. [laughter] i know there are others here involved in state government. I am pleased to see all of you and to be with you in boston. It is not hard to feel the mark that the kennedys made on this Great American city. With a name like mcconnell, i feel quite at home here. Even though i am told that the fitzgeralds came from County Limerick and the kennedys from county wechsler, during a period in the civil war of the great migration because of a potato famine, i must tell you i am scotch irish. For the most part, they got here earlier. I learned a big deal about that from jim webbs book born fighting. About the scotch and scotch irish. They loved fighting the british. They did it in scotland. Which is one of the reasons the british pushed them to northern ireland. They wanted to get rid of as many as they could and in addition to that, they wanted to turn ireland into a protestant country. That didnt work out too well. The scotch irish got over there and found they hated the british and could not get along with the catholics either, so there was a huge outward migration of scotch irish to america. Beginning in 1700 and going down to the american revolution. One of those people was james mcconnell, whose revolutionary war pension application said that he was brought to the port of charleston, South Carolina when he was six years old. It was during the Andrew Jackson administration that they decided to pay a pension to veterans not unheard of in this country. What i discovered was, he got to fight the british again. The scotch irish got over here just in time to fight the british again, something they endued enjoyed doing. My scotch irish ancestors actually got here earlier, but im sure there are plenty of mcconnells in boston. Look around this room. I dont know how many have been on the floor of the United States senate, but this is really close to where i work every day. I sit at that desk right there and harry reid sits where vicki is sitting. The rest of the desks are doled out on a seniority basis. It doesnt mean you have to move. Ted preferred being in the back, given how long he was there he could have been sitting right behind the democratic leader. He liked to be in the back. Seniority gave you an opportunity to pick your spot on the floor. When i first got there i was in the very last week in the corner. Very seldom do we sit where we are supposed to. There are a few solemn occasions where everybody sits where they are supposed to. The first on that happen to me early in my career, in that corner, the light wasnt very good and everybody was sitting where they were supposed to, i look around the room and i thought, none of these people are ever going to die. [laughter] retire. Or be defeated. But i have a pretty good seat now. That is how we dole out the seats. The democratic leader, minority or majority sits there and the republican leader sits there in the whip. Everything else by seniority. Vicki, this is a remarkable replica of the Senate Chamber. It was in that Senate Chamber in 2006 that i asked ted to do me a favor. To come to the Mcconnell Center at the university of louisville. He spent an our talking to the students. Delivered a thoughtful and engaging speech and quite frankly, wowed the audience. I can assure you he was not down there because he owed me legislative favors. That is just the kind of guy he was. I can tell you that the students who were there at that time are still talking about it today. We had a lot of great speakers. Secretary clinton was there, Vice President biden, chief justice roberts, but of all the people we had, ted was my favorite. He was truly extraordinary and i am always grateful he came down. I occupied his old office in the russell building. Which vicki and i had occasion to talk about. It is a great office and i can see why ted kept it for so many years. Here is the story you may not know. If the wind is blowing the right way, you can still catch a whiff of portuguese water dog in there. [laughter] you think im kidding . [laughter] many years ago, i chaired the rules committee and my office was right near there in the russell building. There is a balcony on that floor. The only florida has a balcony. Only floor that has a balcony. So the dog would go down the balcony and go into each office and greet everybody. It was the morning wake up from teds dog. Trotting down the balcony and right into the committee office. In a sense, i got to know the extended Kennedy Family better than most. I will not pretend that we were close allies. We worked. We were not cspan. Org. We were on the opposite side of almost every issue. We worked together when things did a line did align. We worked closely with sanctions on the Apartheid Regime in south africa. A vetoproof majority. An overwrite of Ronald Reagans veto, something i was not routinely involved in. Elaine and i got married on Ronald Reagans birthday. On purpose. You get the drift. Ted and i shared Something Else the senate as an institution and what the new majority is redoing to restore is doing to restore the institution that ted and i love so much. Ask the kid what they want to be when they grow up and you get familiar answers astronaut movie star, president. For me it was always this. U. S. Senator. My first goal was to become a baseball player. But my passion for procedure proved stronger than my pitching arm. So here i am. From a young age, i have always admired the grander of the senate. Its complex rules, its freewheeling debate, and its strong protections for the minority make it one of the most unique legislative bodies on earth. It is the only legislative body were a simple majority is not enough. That is the uniqueness. The senate is a place our country comes together to solve some of its most complex and intractable problems. It is where men and women of good will have often worked out durable compromise and lasting reform. Only rarely does the party have a big enough majority completely impose its will on the institution. Most of the time it requires some level of bipartisanship to accomplish anything. The rules and traditions are what allow this to occur. Listen to this. People matter in the senate because most of what we do is unanimous consent. If any one of the 100 says i object, you are stuck. You are stuck. So we have to talk to each other a lot, as you can imagine. This is a body full of class president types. They are pretty good or they would not have made it this far. I often say, leading this crowd is an experience you ought to have. For members of my caucus running for resident. I said you think running for president is hard, you ought to have my job. I have spent a little more than eight years as leader of my party in the senate. Its like the difference between being the defensive coordinator and the offense of coordinator. I enjoyed being the defensive coordinator but it is harder to score. If you are the offense of court nader you to call plays and there is a chance you can put points on the board. Harry reid would tell you the same thing and so would George Mitchell and bob dole. I love every minute of it and i love the institution of the senate. So did ted kennedy. Which is why this is such an appropriate way to remember him. I got my first taste of the peculiarities as vicki indicated. A great friend of president s kennedy and served for 10 years with ted kennedy. That summer was an incredible summer. The summer of 1964. In those days, most senators didnt have a huge internship program. I was the only intern in the office. My boss was deeply involved in that, as was ted. It was an incredible time to be in washington, but i had been there the summer of the year before on the house side. Got to be at the Martin Luther kings i have a dream speech. I did not hear a word of it. There was a mass of humanity all the way down to the lincoln memorial. Then the next summer, breaking the filibuster on the civil rights bill and it passed. Next summer, i didnt have a job but i went back to visit my friends. And i just happened to hit it on the perfect day. I was sitting in the outer office hoping senator cooper would talk to me for a few minutes. He walked out, grabbed my arm and said i will take you to the capital to see something important. It turned out, that was the day that lbj signed the Voting Rights act of 1965. There i was, not exactly up front, back in the corner and sort of inconspicuously watching all of that going on. So, by the time i had done that for three years in a row i was hoping that someday i would have on young opportunity myself. To say that we were not well connected to put it mildly. In this country, no matter where you start out you have a shot at realizing your dreams and ambitions. 20 years later in 1984, i was sworn into the seat that John Sherman Cooper had once held. He was still alive and he invited me to come to his house which was a few houses away from jackie, the kennedy the house that jack kennedy and his wife lived in before he became president. So i thought to myself, anything is possible in this country. I am not here today to talk about me, i am here to talk about the senate and ted. So when ted came down to the Mcconnell Center he brought a perfect photo of John Sherman Cooper with john f. Kennedy with an inscription and this is what it said i know how much john f. Kennedy admired cooper in the senate and so did i. The perfect gift. I dont think any speaker i had has ever brought a gift. Ted did. He obviously asked somebody on staff to do some work, to come up with the appropriate thing to do. The touch that i so much appreciated. Even though one was a democrat and the other republican, they forged many alliances. As i indicated they Work Together on the civil rights bill, so did ted. He picked up his load when his brother was gone and he and senator cooper got the bill across the war. What we saw in the ultimate triumph of the Civil Rights Act was the senate at its best. Almost nobody in america can tell you this today, but to show you how bipartisan it was, a higher percentage of republicans voted for the civil rights bill and democrats do because in those days they were still the southern democrats which was a significant part of the democratic coalition. It was genuinely bipartisan. I mentioned being in the room when lbj signed the Voting Rights act. I was one of the spe